Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:37     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Anonymous wrote:No, that wasn't at all what I meant to say, but thanks anyway.


Well, it should have been. You presume that everyone knows what you do. You could have gently educated that other poster instead of just being a bitch.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:32     Subject: Re:Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
another poster from a poor family with a lot of kids. Why is that?


4 kids may be a lot now but it certainly wasn't when I was a kid.

BTW, your post is really offensive.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:31     Subject: Re:Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Pardon my ignorance, but did your mother not have time to teach you to cook? How could she expect you to be responsible for feeding your younger siblings without instruction?


You are ignorant and entitled and it shows.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:27     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Anonymous wrote:Some of the posters here are really clueless. When you are struggling to provide 3 meals a day for your children, buying organic is NOT a priority. When we went through difficult times during my childhood, my mom was not looking to buy $10 Rao's sauce and high end pasta. Luckily, she was an amazing cook so we did not eat many processed goods but she scoured the sales and certainly could not afford some of the specialty items we eat today.

Many people here seem unaware of the dynamics of a poor family. Often there are single family households and no money for child care so the older siblings care for the younger ones. When my mother worked late, I often had to prepare dinner for my younger siblings. I certainly had no clue how to turn beans into a meal when I was 10 years old. So, yes I think canned goods in general are easier to prepare for children responsible for dinner. With that being said, I do think there are better options than Spaghettios that are still relatively inexpensive.


Pardon my ignorance, but did your mother not have time to teach you to cook? How could she expect you to be responsible for feeding your younger siblings without instruction?
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:23     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Anonymous wrote:People you need to get a clue. Step out of your lily white tower and get your head out of your butt.

I grew up poor. Really poor. Working class poor. Latch key kid whose older sister did the cooking.

Beans? You have to be kidding. That bag of beans isn't going to do anything for the poor unless you are donating the spices and veggies necessary to turn those beans into a meal. Have you checked out the price of spice lately? The poor aren't wasting their money on spices.

Do you know how many times a fire was started on the stove because my sister was trying to cook something and got distracted with her homework or her siblings?

Preparing something that had to be soaked overnight and simmered for hours? Get real Not when one kid is taking care of another as is often the case in a poor household.

Fast, cheap and easy is the way to go. Quite frankly, when you are truly poor, quantity beats quality every day.

BTW, in my family, we would have been happier for all 4 kids to have a coat than for one of us to have a "high end" coat. In my neighborhood, we preferred Target over Lily Pulitzer any day. The LP screams charity and wearing such a thing would have ensured that we got the crap beaten out of us, anyway.

Are you really than dense or are you just misguided? Good grief.

Thank you to those of you who donate with a generous heart. Those of you who judge the "quality" of what someone else is donating and judge it to be insufficient have my pity.


another poster from a poor family with a lot of kids. Why is that?
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:21     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Some of the posters here are really clueless. When you are struggling to provide 3 meals a day for your children, buying organic is NOT a priority. When we went through difficult times during my childhood, my mom was not looking to buy $10 Rao's sauce and high end pasta. Luckily, she was an amazing cook so we did not eat many processed goods but she scoured the sales and certainly could not afford some of the specialty items we eat today.

Many people here seem unaware of the dynamics of a poor family. Often there are single family households and no money for child care so the older siblings care for the younger ones. When my mother worked late, I often had to prepare dinner for my younger siblings. I certainly had no clue how to turn beans into a meal when I was 10 years old. So, yes I think canned goods in general are easier to prepare for children responsible for dinner. With that being said, I do think there are better options than Spaghettios that are still relatively inexpensive.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:09     Subject: Re:Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Anonymous wrote:
When you are donating all of those wonderful and healthy beans, are you donating all of the spices, vegetables and broth necessary to turn those beans into a meal? How many of you want to sit down to a meal of boiled beans? How many or your kids would eat a big old bowl of beans with no added flavor?


Yeah, better to donate absolutely nothing then.


No. Either donate everything necessary to make the meal or donate something else.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:07     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Anonymous wrote:When you are donating all of those wonderful and healthy beans, are you donating all of the spices, vegetables and broth necessary to turn those beans into a meal? How many of you want to sit down to a meal of boiled beans? How many or your kids would eat a big old bowl of beans with no added flavor?


Yeah, better to donate absolutely nothing then.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:07     Subject: Re:Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
I go through my son's clothes and throw away the really stained ones. If i wouldn't let him go out in it, I don't donate it


You do know that places like Goodwill sell these damaged items to recyclers were the fibers are turned into other goods and the charity receives money. I guess you would rather clog up a landfill as a "matter of respect."


You must be the pretentious landfill lady from the first post who has nothing better to do than correct an anonymous person's writing on a forum. If you have this much time, go volunteer at a shelter.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 09:04     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
No, that wasn't at all what I meant to say, but thanks anyway.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 08:57     Subject: Re:Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Anonymous wrote:
I go through my son's clothes and throw away the really stained ones. If i wouldn't let him go out in it, I don't donate it


You do know that places like Goodwill sell these damaged items to recyclers were the fibers are turned into other goods and the charity receives money. I guess you would rather clog up a landfill as a "matter of respect."


I think what you meant to say is:

"You might not be aware that Goodwill will sell these damaged items to recycles for fibers that are later turned into goods and the charity receives money. Either way, thank you for donating your son's clothes."

You are welcome. See, that wasn't so hard.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 08:54     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
When you are donating all of those wonderful and healthy beans, are you donating all of the spices, vegetables and broth necessary to turn those beans into a meal? How many of you want to sit down to a meal of boiled beans? How many or your kids would eat a big old bowl of beans with no added flavor?
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 08:51     Subject: Re:Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
I could argue that we could stand to spend less on electronic gizmos and more on better quality food.


Says the middle class/upper middle class lady who has time to post on DCUM during the day and isn't working her ass off in a menial job to put a roof over her kids head.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 08:46     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I donated several bags of beans to the Boy Scouts food drive that was just this Saturday. I'll buy store-brand cereal for donations.

Organic food > bulk food (bags of rice, beans, etc.) > mass-produced food > starvation.

The pressure is on mass-produced food, steadily it has gotten better. As more people buy organic food, economics of scale kick in.

Let's face it these various carcinogens in modern mass-produced food are only known because we're not kicking it at 45 due to diptheria or cholera.


This has to be one of the most idiotic posts I have read. There is not an increase of carcinogens in bulk food compared to organic , and carcinogens don't cause cholera or diptheria.


Me again.

First off, I do differentiate between bulk and mass-produced food in my post. Basically, bulk food are big bags of rice, beans, whatever vegetable or fruit is on sale that week, etc. Generally good for you and lightly processed, although there may be pesticide residue. Mass-produced food is highly processed stuff, like various breakfast cereals, spaghettios, etc.

I'm not sure why you're asserting I said that carcinogens cause cholera or diptheria. My point is that the flaws with mass-produced food are only known *because* we're not dying at 45 from diptheria or cholera. So we now have the chance to get cancer from the various crap in our food, plastic, etc. All in all, it's better to die of cancer from mass-produced Made in China stuff in your 60s or 70s than to die from the various reasons that people kicked it back in 1900.

I'm also not sure of YOUR point. Is your point that mass-produced food (I'm talking spaghettios and other ultra-processed food, when I say bulk food, I meant things like bags of rice, beans, etc.) is as good as organic in taste, lack of Bad Stuff, etc.? (Or alternately, that organic -- either farmer's market organic or Big Organic like Whole Foods -- is not worth the premium?)

Now you can say that environmentalists are proposing cures that are worse than the disease in many cases. I could argue that we could stand to spend less on electronic gizmos and more on better quality food.
Anonymous
Post 11/18/2011 08:43     Subject: Do you donate the same or lower quality items?
People you need to get a clue. Step out of your lily white tower and get your head out of your butt.

I grew up poor. Really poor. Working class poor. Latch key kid whose older sister did the cooking.

Beans? You have to be kidding. That bag of beans isn't going to do anything for the poor unless you are donating the spices and veggies necessary to turn those beans into a meal. Have you checked out the price of spice lately? The poor aren't wasting their money on spices.

Do you know how many times a fire was started on the stove because my sister was trying to cook something and got distracted with her homework or her siblings?

Preparing something that had to be soaked overnight and simmered for hours? Get real Not when one kid is taking care of another as is often the case in a poor household.

Fast, cheap and easy is the way to go. Quite frankly, when you are truly poor, quantity beats quality every day.

BTW, in my family, we would have been happier for all 4 kids to have a coat than for one of us to have a "high end" coat. In my neighborhood, we preferred Target over Lily Pulitzer any day. The LP screams charity and wearing such a thing would have ensured that we got the crap beaten out of us, anyway.

Are you really than dense or are you just misguided? Good grief.

Thank you to those of you who donate with a generous heart. Those of you who judge the "quality" of what someone else is donating and judge it to be insufficient have my pity.