The Incredible Buying Power of a Food Bank
Posted on August 8, 2011Believe it or not, food banks in general would rather have money than food.
Honestly, many – if not most – food banks do not want to receive donated food from individual donors. Unless you’re a farmer, a restauranteur, a manufacturer or run a supermarket, they’d rather you give money instead. But no food, please. And how come? Everyone knows that a food bank’s function is to collate and distribute food. It just seems to follow that what you drop off at one is nothing else but food! What about the news that they’re seeing a big drop in donations from producers such as those farmers, grocers, and manufacturers?
Not that surprising, actually, once you find out why (not).
The main reason food banks would rather receive monetary contributions instead of food from individual donors is because of the food banks’ unique purchasing power. Yes, a lot of the food in a food bank is actually bought, not donated! But very little profit, if any, is made by the sellers, such that a four-dollar box of morning cereal is a four-dollar dozen boxes of breakfast cereal when the food bank does the shopping!
Fact: food banks receive dramatic discounts, so they can really make every dollar stretch.
Besides, running a food bank costs money. Even though much of the help is comprised of volunteers, some full-time staff is needed. Drivers, administrators, as well as rent and utilities all cost money – especially in a town like New York, for example: City Harvest distributes some fifty-seven thousand pounds of food each day out of the more than three million pounds collected annually. This takes trucks, and truck drivers. That’s why even though you may not be as rich as donors such as real estate developer Isaac Toussie or television weatherman Al Roker, your money still helps – more than your food will!
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