I’ll echo food banks. $10,000 isn’t much money for a municipality of more than 100 people, but a food bank might be where that money goes the furthest.
Knowing from my local outfit, while they would of course accept a donation of actual food bought with that money, they can do much more with the money than the food it buys in the grocery shops.
They do that by reaching out to vendors themselves and getting discounts that would put Costco out of business. I once heard that monetary donations being stretched 5x is typical, oftentimes going 10x or more.
From some unrelated nonprofit experience, companies seem way more cool with discounting goods and services than donating money. Probably something to do with contribution profit margin, where selling some more at a loss is still better as it covers some costs you have anyway. That plus creative tax write offs, and they probably earn money from giving you a huge discount AND feel good about it / get free PR
This is for sure the best option. Not only can they use it most effectively, but the money won’t expire like food, they’d be able to fetch staple foods that don’t get donated often.
I’m not feeling up to researching this statement for a broader audience (in this moment), but I can attest to what I learned many, many years ago while I was volunteering at my local food bank. I was informed by the gal who ran the food bank warehouse that monetary donations are by far the best thing you can give a food bank. You touched on it, that money doesn’t expire. So they don’t have to deal with the influx of food donations as often or as drastically.
Just like @JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world shared, an established food bank can easily stretch that same dollar for more food. I recall the gal at my local food bank informing me one day that she can buy food for 2/3rds of the store price with no sweat. I think she said the best she ever scored was 2/5ths of the store price on meat, as it was going to go bad in a week or so. And thankfully, they had plenty of county based food pantries that were able to distribute that meat to a lot of people in need. So not only could they save on purchasing, but they were also in the loop on overstock, near expiration food pushes, and also, farmers would donate whatever small amount of leftover food they had. Not to mention elderly people would had grown some squash, cucumbers, and even green onions in their garden, to be donated to the county food bank.
Sharing this actually has me remembering that there are plenty of unsung local heroes. Plenty of people who do good and don’t ask for recognition. So while the world seems like it’s all going to hell, there are plenty of good doers out there still. We just don’t hear about them. Fighting the good fight to keep us all progressing forward.
Donate it to the library or a local food bank. Simple community building.
I’ll echo food banks. $10,000 isn’t much money for a municipality of more than 100 people, but a food bank might be where that money goes the furthest.
Knowing from my local outfit, while they would of course accept a donation of actual food bought with that money, they can do much more with the money than the food it buys in the grocery shops.
They do that by reaching out to vendors themselves and getting discounts that would put Costco out of business. I once heard that monetary donations being stretched 5x is typical, oftentimes going 10x or more.
From some unrelated nonprofit experience, companies seem way more cool with discounting goods and services than donating money. Probably something to do with contribution profit margin, where selling some more at a loss is still better as it covers some costs you have anyway. That plus creative tax write offs, and they probably earn money from giving you a huge discount AND feel good about it / get free PR
This is for sure the best option. Not only can they use it most effectively, but the money won’t expire like food, they’d be able to fetch staple foods that don’t get donated often.
I’m not feeling up to researching this statement for a broader audience (in this moment), but I can attest to what I learned many, many years ago while I was volunteering at my local food bank. I was informed by the gal who ran the food bank warehouse that monetary donations are by far the best thing you can give a food bank. You touched on it, that money doesn’t expire. So they don’t have to deal with the influx of food donations as often or as drastically.
Just like @JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world shared, an established food bank can easily stretch that same dollar for more food. I recall the gal at my local food bank informing me one day that she can buy food for 2/3rds of the store price with no sweat. I think she said the best she ever scored was 2/5ths of the store price on meat, as it was going to go bad in a week or so. And thankfully, they had plenty of county based food pantries that were able to distribute that meat to a lot of people in need. So not only could they save on purchasing, but they were also in the loop on overstock, near expiration food pushes, and also, farmers would donate whatever small amount of leftover food they had. Not to mention elderly people would had grown some squash, cucumbers, and even green onions in their garden, to be donated to the county food bank.
Sharing this actually has me remembering that there are plenty of unsung local heroes. Plenty of people who do good and don’t ask for recognition. So while the world seems like it’s all going to hell, there are plenty of good doers out there still. We just don’t hear about them. Fighting the good fight to keep us all progressing forward.