Food bank largesse

[screamingflea]

Word to the wise? Avoid food-bank peanut butter. It came in my allotment, and I don't like peanut butter so I've been pilling my dog with it. This afternoon I got curious and tried a spoonful ... I'm not totally convinced it's human grade. I remember as a child I'd eat peanut butter in any form, but I wouldn't feed my kid this stuff.

Otherwise? No complaints at all. :+1:

[iris lily]

well, what's the brand? The food bank products I've seen are all labeled.

[screamingflea]

Sunland, bottled in New Mexico. Probably not designed specifically as "government peanut butter," but it surely tastes like it. When I brought home my first (and hopefully last!) food bank box I did find a package of lunch meat that was 2 weeks expired. I meant it when I said everything else was great though. They gave me so much that even without food stamps I probably wouldn't need to go shopping again for a while. It's a real blessing to have this safety net.

[Tiam]

In the past when I used to get food boxes, most often the peanut butter was clearly labeled Government. It tasted horrible. When I looked at the ingredients I noticed that it was peanuts and CORN Oil added. Hmmmm. Why add any oil? Were they removing the more valuable peanut oil and replacing it with cheaper corn oil? Was it somehow a by product that was being reconstituted and called 'peanut butter'? I still don't know but food bank peanut butter is usually awful if it comes from subsidy and not donations.

It's nice that you received so much. Here, in my area, food banks are struggling and stretched to the limit.

[Merski]

flea, my sister used to get government surplus peanut butter. She made the most amazing cookies with it. Also could you turn it into thai peanut sauce or chichen peanut soup if it's not palatable on its own? If it's rancid throw it out.

[screamingflea]

Tiam, it may have something to do with this being a hippie town. I donno.

I don't think it's rancid (the peanut butter, not the town!) but it just tastes really weird. It has a very thick clay texture. The dog doesn't seem to mind. I hadn't thought about cookies, I may try that.

Some of the lessons I learned on my first visit include:

* get there early
* check expiration dates whenever possible
* likewise with ingredients, especially if you have sensitivities. Free food isn't helpful if it makes you sick.
* bring your own box/bags/containers to get stuff home.
* be ready to cook things up immediately, especially produce. A lot of donations are there because they're too old for the market shelves. See above.

All that said, I'm very grateful for the opportunity when I went by a couple weeks ago. I found that this particular facility only serves people who are already on food stamps, but they didn't ask to verify that. And as I sat in the waiting room for almost an hour I was pleasantly surprised to find volunteers cruising around offering other donated items like clothes, books, and even christmas trees. The world is kinder and gentler than I sometimes give it credit for.

[CropCircleDancer]

It seems weird to have a food bank just for people on food stamps. Haven't they already been helped? What about the people who fall between the cracks?
Our foodbank has whatever peopel donate, and there is lots of Kirkland organic because it comes in the multi-pack.

[RosieTR]

Sounds like something reconstituted. DH bought dried peanut butter as a disaster ration and even mixing it back with peanut oil was not very good. I can't remember whether Asian peanut sauce worked; I think we tried cookies which were so-so. But, it does make me feel good to read your post since we gave $ to the food bank here. I figured they could stretch my dollars better than I could and they probably 1) don't pay food tax and 2) can fill out other's donations to make a meal that makes sense.

[lhamo]

Had dinner at a famous Taiwanese restaurant on Friday, and one of the things we had for dessert was a peanut butter milk-shake like thing. Basically it tasted lik peanut butter mixed with ice and cream. Might be worth a try? It was delicious...

lhamo

[Tiam]

I don't think that's what flea meant. I think that she was talking about not having any foodstamps and got the food at the pantry. What we she meant (I took it this way) was that even if she DID get foodstamps she wouldn't have to spend any for quite a while as she was so well supplied. That's great to hear, because as I said, the economy has stretched the food boxes to the limits.


As to crappy peanut butter, it's just my opinion but I doubt you could make anything that uses peanut butter as it's base flavor, like peanut sauce, or milkshakes or cookies with bad peanut butter and get good results. It tastes BAD. Not rancid, just nasty. Why would anyone want to put nasty tasting stuff into a recipe to make MORE nasty tasting stuff. It's not going to taste like peanuts like we would want, it will just take on the nastiness. I suggest using it to make bird feeders, rolling pinecones in peanut butter and rolling in seeds and hang from branches. Or mix equal parts peanut butter/suet or shortening together and mix with two to two and a half parts cornmeal to make dough. Press the dough over a branch or set out in a suet feeder. Press some seeds into it.

[screamingflea]

Fido appreciates it, and that's good enough for me. I go through tons of p-b on his behalf anyway, so this still saves me some needed cash.

As far as the food stamp/food bank conundrum, that's an interesting question. I should go back and double-check their requirements. My impression from the paperwork they had me fill out was that I was required to be on stamps before getting any benefits from them. I could be wrong though - maybe it was just a survey. Either way I don't expect to have to go back for quite a while. It's reassuring just to know that it's there.

[Bootsie]

Next time I make a food donation to the food bank, I'm giving jars of good peanut butter. :)

[Tiam]

I know that where I live food stamps are not a prerequisite to qualifying. Your INCOME or lack of it is the qualifier. Here is a link on Food Banks and junkfood.http://http://www.npr.org/2011/01/13/132864584/high-demand-nutritional-dilemma-vex-food-banks