Food Bank Diet, Part 1

   My husband works full-time at a food bank.  As a part of his job he receives and assesses donations of fresh and non-perishable food, sets quotas so that the food is distributed as fairly as possible and coordinates volunteers in the warehouse.  Eighty to 150 families per day come to his workplace to ask for “emergency food,” which is called a hamper held in one or more boxes.  As an awareness exercise for our family of five, I will be purchasing my groceries next week according to the items that were given to a family of the same size on Friday, July 13^th.  (We will also use three other items we have in stock: margarine, flour and brown sugar.)

   My next posts will tell you how we managed on the food bank diet.

  

  Here is the shopping list I will be using:

2.5 kilograms (5 pounds) of meat, including 2 packages of hotdogs and a small ham

1 box (10 packages) of Quaker ready- to-serve oatmeal

500 gram (1 pound) jar of peanut butter

1 clove garlic; 5 onions

3 cans of soup

2 kg frozen vegetables

2 small cans of vegetables

2 L of juice (combination of canned apple juice and juice boxes)

1 large bag frozen cranberries

3 loaves bread; 2 packages of buns

10-500 gram tubs of Greek yogurt, 5 plain with honey & 5 strawberry

3 small tins of tomato paste

2- 900 gram packages of enriched pasta

3-500 gram salads: coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad

1 L milk

6 eggs

2-400 gram blocks of cheese

1 small tub of dip

2 boxes Ritz crackers

1 Angel food cake & 1 package chocolate chip cookies

10 pounds potatoes

4 zucchinis
small bag of rice
one head of lettuce