My neighborhood has a little free food pantry that I fill weekly. Problem is, I’ve been finding it difficult to provide a well-rounded variety of foods. Fresh fruit and veg are not allowed.
Any ideas for items I can stock? I try to keep each item under $2 to get the most bang for my buck.
My go-tos are:
*Rice.
*Oats.
*Beans, dried and canned (these usually go slowly)
*Baking mixes, flour, sugar, yeast.
*Canned veggies.
*Condensed soup.
*Oil.
*Evaporated milk.
*Condiments.
*Canned chicken, tuna, and salmon.
*Applesauce.
*Spices.
Thanks ahead of time for any ideas. Can’t seem to get the formatting working on mobile but you get the gist.
Lentils and nuts is what I can think of.
I stocked lentils once and they sat for weeks. :( Nuts would be great but are pricey.
random idea - could you make little “meal kit” type things for the less popular ingredients like these?
if someone has never cooked lentils before, and sees them in a free pantry, I can definitely understand why they wouldn’t be inclined to take them, they can be somewhat daunting at first.
but you could do something like bundle together a bag of lentils with a can of tomato paste and a jar of curry powder, with a printout of this recipe or a similar one, and someone would only need to add a couple of fresh veggies to complete the recipe.
is buying them in bulk and dividing them up into smaller portions an option? one of my go-to snacks are these cashews which are still on the pricey side, but less expensive than buying them in smaller packages.
Both awesome ideas! I’ve been thinking of doing birthday cake kits with box mix, icing, oil, and candles and they would just need eggs. Expanding that to lentil meal kits would be perfect. I can imagine that someone getting off of a long shift could just grab it and make a nice dinner without much thought.
I think I could make little packages of nuts. I’d need to figure out a way to seal them to prevent tampering.
nuts also go rancid, not exactly “non-perishable”