Had an opportunity to observe and speak with the coordinator of a church food pantry in Nashville, first I was impressed with the amount of brand name food items they received as donations. Next what I was not expecting to see was the huge amount of fresh vegetables and fruits they had from local growers and retailers that they had to give away. Now for the bad part the coordinator explained that the people who receive assistance from the pantry generally didn’t want the fresh vegetables, they want prepared meals from a box or can. What amazed me afterwards was people who received or chose to take the fresh vegetables and fruits would actually throw the entire packages away along the sidewalk and roads in the vicinity of the church. Circling back to the coordinator for the food bank it got to a point they started turning fresh vegetable donations away. This is a difficult concept for me to grasp, the people coming for the free food at times drove very nice vehicles, one day a week the church people had pre-made food packages and rain or shine would hand them to people in the parking lot so as they didn’t even have to get out of their vehicles. This was pre-COVID not sure how it works now.