Also, distribution problem? The food is literally already there.
Comment on Grocery stores should have food banks
Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world 9 months agoIt also ignores the big issue of distribution.
A Kroger is not equipped to handle distribution of food to those in need. And I will 100% guarantee you that if they just leave the dumpsters unlocked, it will mostly be upper middle class college kids “dumpster diving” who grab the food… until one of them gets stabbed and the entire program is shut down forever.
I would like to see more effort to work with local charities and food banks to donate food but… a surprising number of supermarkets already do that. The issue is that there just aren’t enough food banks because NIMBYs kill them out of fear it will lead to “too many homeless people. and poors”. Which gets back to the issue of trying to get food to centralized locations which increase costs, cause issues with food that is fine if it is kept refrigerated, etc.
Like, for as massively fucked as it is to see an entire aisle of cereal get thrown into a bin and the latch locked, that is not “the problem”. The problem is that we as a society do everything we can to make life inhospitable for the less well off in the hopes that they die and go away.
Starglasses@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Just for clarity, when you say staff you mean like government employees? Or charity workers?
Starglasses@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
Staff from the store itself. I see no barrier for a large business with m/billions in profit to add additional staff to run the food bank area
BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world 9 months ago
So you’re not suggesting some sort of legal requirement? You want a company to voluntarily add labor cost, storage costs, any liability, equipment costs, etc on the chance people coming in for food assistance might buy stuff that not all grocery stores even carry?
Companies aren’t going to do that voluntarily, that’s not a realistic expectation. The ROI on your suggestion doesn’t make sense, the only way something like that gets staffed is if you convince states to pass some sort of requirement that companies do this…
Starglasses@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
Yet! A Kroger isn not equipped to handle it yet. Work needs to be put into the idea, a plan will form, and then it can be executed.
I feel like too many people read idealistic future plans and assume it will be inmediate and therefore dismiss the idea entirely. Have hope :)
Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world 9 months ago
Retrofitting so many buildings and hiring out the staff, and training them, is just not viable. Or even a good idea. You might as well want all of them to have helicopter pads and hotels attached.
Food banks exist. There should be more of them. But they are a very different kind of building than a supermarket and you need a VERY different kind of staff to be able to actually help those who need it rather than wander off because you are getting paid minimum wage and its your smoke break.
Starglasses@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 months ago
That is a big leap to helicopter pads.
Rather than defeat the idea, why not try to think of ways it could work. Ideas need time to grow and flourish with revisions. Nothing is made perfectly the first time. What changes to the idea would you make in good faith?
Just because an idea won’t happen doesn’t mean we can’t explore the ‘what if’ :)
Puzzle_Sluts_4Ever@lemmy.world 9 months ago
There is no way this “could work” because it is a fundamentally bad idea.
A food bank is not just a cart full of loaves of bread. It involves people who know how to engage with various government programs and how to tell people how to engage with it. And, the good ones, involve people who know how to help the people who need to use said food bank.
Like I said above: the issue is not the food. It is the counties. It is getting people to allow a food bank to even exist in their county. And you can 100% bet that if it is such a struggle to allow one to be opened that they will not be cool with The Poors “shopping” in the same supermarket they do.