For the first time in years I have gone to a food bank. (Last Friday). I actually went to two. That was an experience. Let me see. What did I get? Steak, Chicken Breast, 2 hamburger patties, seriously days old bread that went moldy within 2 days, weird noodles, another mixed bag of noodles, dozen of eggs, one onion, 10 potatoes (could have had more but had no room, can of peas, can of green beans, 6 cans of sparkling water, an orange, chips ahoy cookies, peanut butter cream cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, small jar of peanut butter, 6 individual off brand fruit loops, 2 packages of soft tacos, 1 large soft burrito shell package 4 pineapple yogurts, baby Bella mushrooms, seriously black bananas, cherries, one package of macaroni and cheese, snowmen marshmallows, pretzel m&ms and soft cheese sauce that was repackaged in a plastic container with black marker on it. Oh and 2 Gerber toddler peaches.(Why they gave those to me, I have no idea. I have no kids)
Now I understand it is all about who donates what to the pantries in the area. Let us see how this will work for the week on meals. Got plenty of snacks! Have no one to give the toddler peaches to. But.. hey.. I might eat them if I get hungry enough I suppose.
Day 1 Friday
dinner: Steak, potato with mushrooms and onion
snack: cookies, cherries, pretzel m&ms throughout the day and watching TV
Day 2 Saturday
breakfast left over steak, fried potatoes, mushrooms and onion with eggs 6 eggs (had to make extra to share with roommate)
lunch and dinner were at a friends
Snack: cherries mostly (they are good) couple of cookies and pretzel m&ms
Day 3 Sunday
breakfast omlet in a bag with my last hotdog in it (2 eggs)
lunch: fried potatoes and mushrooms
dinner: PBJ sandwich on weird bread that has poppy seeds on it
Snack: cherries mostly (they are good) couple of cookies and pretzel m&ms
Day 4 Monday
Breakfast 2 egg fried potato, last of the mushrooms (made extra to share with roommate)
lunch pbj sandwich
dinner: Hamburger patties and potatoes
Snack: cherries mostly (they are good) couple of cookies and pretzel m&ms
Day 5 Tuesday
Breakfast last 2 eggs fried potato
Lunch PBJ
Dinner Last ground meat from the freezer and fried potatoes
Snack: cherries mostly (they are good) couple of cookies and pretzel m&ms
I have been mostly drinking water until today when I made iced tea. I had two cans of Ginger Ale left and drank those.
What I currently have left is chicken breast, cherries, some of that poppy seed bread, taco and burrito shells, 3 yogurts, potatoes, macaroni and cheese (no milk or margarine), some of the soft cheese sauce (might put that in the mac and cheese tomorrow), weird noodles, other package of noodles, peas and green beans, bananas that will be frozen for bread when I can get the ingredients and cookies and pretzel m&ms and santa marshmallows.
So after tomorrow the meat will be gone. I received no butter, no milk and no real cheese or lunch meat.
So this is the plan for the rest of the week:
Day 6 Wednesday
Breakfast - Yogurt (roommate had one yesterday) and dry cereal
Lunch - PBJ on the last piece of that weird bread
Dinner Chicken Breast, Green beans and maybe potatoes
Snack: cherries mostly (they are good) couple of cookies and pretzel m&ms
Day 7 Thursday
Breakfast: yogurt and dry cereal
Lunch PBJ on a taco shell (2)
Dinner: Macaroni and Cheese Sauce
Snack: cherries mostly (they are good) couple of cookies and pretzel m&ms
So there ya have it. My week of menus from the trip to the food pantries.
Here is my suggestion for those of you that donate to places like this: Give them food that YOU would eat. While I appreciate the snacks, I would have rather had filling meals that I could make all week. Make sure the food is not expired when you donate it or soon to be expired. The bread that gets donated by the Bread Company really needs picked up the same day it is given out. Donate food coupons to local restaurants. Doesn't have to be much. Even $5.00 at McDonald's gets you stuff off the $1.00 menu. That includes a drink so really for $3.00 and change you can get a meal.
Friday, I will play Russian Roulette and see what I get again from the food pantry. Expect me to report in again on this subject.
Well put! I try to advise people on things to donate when the MES does food drives around here. But you still see many many MANY cans of pork & beans and mixed vegetables.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually surprised your local pantry even tried to have fresh food! That is seriously a step up from anything I've experienced.
The food pantry I go to is with a church and they apparently get a lot of donations from corporations including the grocery stores. Sometimes it is a crap shoot on what ya get. Like this time, I got a roast, lunch meat, bread, bananas, tuna, chicken noodle soup,canned stew, chocolate muffins, soft taco shells, macaroni and cheese, spaghetti and an onion. Not enough to last a week. But my food stamps came in so I was able to supplement to make it last until next week. I only got $59 for one time emergency help only. So once it is gone, there will be no more.
DeleteI know what you mean by donations for MES though. They like to bring those mixed vegies because they are on sale most of the time. I have to say though that our Cammies did a great job on donations last year and it was more than the baked beans and mixed veggies.
I donated half my pantry last summer because I had plenty of food. Wish now I hadn't because I need it now.