Sixty-five cents moves a pound of food. Here is where it goes.
The food is mostly given; the cash pays the truck, the building, the two staff and the gaps on the needs list. A gift here shows what it covers in pounds. Food drives get a printable flyer with this week’s list on it.
A gift, in pounds of food
$16 is one household’s weekly visit. Monthly gifts let the coordinator buy peanut butter when the list says out, without waiting for the fall letter.
$25 covers the cash cost of about 38 lb of food, a weekly visit and a half.
Give $25 once →Demonstration: the button opens an email; no card is taken. On a real site this is the pantry’s own giving page. Gifts are tax-deductible as the law allows; the pantry sends a statement each January.
The arithmetic
Sixty-five cents is cash expenses divided by pounds distributed — the truck, the cold room, the two staff, the food we buy when a drive falls short — not the value of the food, which is given and counted separately. Gifts of stock, a gift in someone’s name, or a bequest: email [email protected]. The pantry never lists donors by name.
What we need
Updated Friday 18 September by the pantry. Lines drop off by themselves after their date.
The same list is on the home page and on every drive flyer printed this week. When a line says enough, please bring something else — a pallet of pasta takes shelf space from the things we are out of.
Bring it during opening hours
Tuesday noon to 3 p.m. · Thursday 4 to 7 p.m. · Saturday 9 a.m. to noon · closed Thursday 26 November — to the desk, or the side door on Quarry Road if it is more than a car load; a volunteer will help unload.
Please, nothing opened, nothing past its date, nothing home-made. That is the pantry’s own rule, and it follows the food bank’s partner-agency handbook and the state food code: a pantry is a food business under the code, and home kitchens are not inspected. Date labels on packaged food are about quality, not safety, except infant formula — so a can a month past its “best by” is fine; an open one is not.
Sources, reported not advised: the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (42 U.S.C. 1791, as amended in January 2023) protects donors and nonprofits who give apparently wholesome food in good faith, and does not protect gross negligence. State rules on donated food differ; Minnesota’s, for example, are in “Food Safety for Food Donation” (MDA/MDH, March 2020). A real pantry links its own state’s page here.
Make the flyer
A school, a scout troop, an office, a congregation. Fill in four things and print a dated flyer that carries this week’s needs list and our drop-off hours. Demonstration: the flyer is made on this page; nothing is sent or stored.
Four things to know
Ask for what is on the list. The flyer prints this week’s list; a drive that brings peanut butter when we are out is worth three that bring pasta.
Any amount helps. A classroom drive is usually forty to eighty pounds; that is two or three households’ week.
Bring it in during opening hours, or tell us the date and a volunteer meets you at the side door. Drive food is sorted on Wednesdays and on the shelves by Thursday evening.
Nothing opened, expired or home-made, for the reasons above — the flyer says so too.
Donors are protected by the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act (42 U.S.C. 1791) when food is given in good faith; the flyer carries that line with its source, and nothing more, because a flyer is not legal advice.
Your organization
Dates
What the pantry needs this week
- Peanut butter, 16 oz jars — we are out
- Diapers, sizes 4 to 6, opened packs are fine — we are out
- Canned tuna and chicken, any brand, pop-top if you can — running low
- Cooking oil, 48 oz bottles — running low
- Canned fruit, in juice, not syrup — running low
- Back-to-school snacks, granola bars, fruit cups — running low
We have enough cereal and pasta for now — thank you, and please bring something else.
Where to leave it
Drop-off place
Please: nothing opened, nothing past its date, nothing home-made
Cans, jars, boxes and bags as they came from the store. Pop-top cans and small sizes are the most useful.
After the drive
Bring it to the pantry, 61 Quarry Road, during opening hours: Tuesday noon to 3 p.m. · Thursday 4 to 7 p.m. · Saturday 9 a.m. to noon · closed Thursday 26 November. Questions: your contact, or [email protected].
Donors of apparently wholesome food given in good faith are protected by the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, 42 U.S.C. 1791 (reported, not legal advice). Printed · the needs list is this week’s · SAMPLE: Quarry Road Food Pantry is an invented organization on a demonstration site built by connectNPO.
The Wednesday table
Every box from a drive is opened here: dents checked, dates read, a plain sticker with the month it should be gone by, and onto the right shelf. Anything opened or home-made is set aside and composted or discarded, which is why the flyer asks so plainly. A school drive of eighty pounds takes two volunteers about half an hour.