A neighbor gets food from the food bank every week. He receives so much stuff he is overwhelmed. He has given us stuff he does not use or has in overabundance. Some is thrown out to the critters. He recently got a 50 lb bag of onions and it sat outside until most of it froze...we took one small bag.
We do not need free food, but it will go to waste or will be fed to birds, turkeys, deer etc.
It is all useable. We have stopped taking a lot of it as we have over a dozen cans of chickpeas we rarely use, bags of walnuts, bags of rice, bags of peas, beans etc. My neighbor has given us large cans of canned salmon (that is not cheap) because he doesn't want to use it. We will NEVER turn salmon down!!
When my fiancé worked at the same food bank, they pushed a lot of stuff onto her to "move it". Saying "Take it, it will go to waste."
I do not have an answer, but it irks me to see food wasted. My mom would use stuff up even if we had to eat the same dish three days in a row. She rarely threw away food. My parents lived through the depression so maybe that taught them not to waste food.
I see "people starving" in America that are 50 lbs overweight. I see nice cars in the line at the food bank.
Just needed to rant.