the_sam•29d agoMost Upvoted

Visited a food bank in Detroit and walked away mad about canned green beans

I volunteered at a food bank off Gratiot Avenue last weekend and it totally changed how I see canned vegetables. They had pallets of green beans, like hundreds of cases, but almost no canned tomatoes or beans. I asked the coordinator why and she said 'donations are based on what people think is healthy not what families actually cook.' So now I'm sitting here thinking, why do we keep pushing limp canned green beans on people when a can of chili beans or stewed tomatoes can actually make a meal? I ended up grabbing a few dented cans of diced tomatoes from the corner store and threw together a quick soup with some canned corn and a can of chicken. It was way better than anything I've ever tried with green beans. Has anyone else noticed this weird donation gap or am I just overthinking a vegetable?

3 comments

3 Comments

nguyen.blake28d agoTop Commenter

Yeah, the Gratiot food bank is a real eye opener. My cousin works at a pantry over on the west side and she told me they actually have to throw away boxes of green beans because nobody takes them. Meanwhile they run out of stuff like black beans and rotel in like two hours. People donate what they think is a safe "vegetable" but they dont think about what actually makes a meal. Canned green beans are just sad boiled mush, theyre not even good for soups or anything. I think the whole system needs to be less about what people feel good donating and more about what actually helps.

thomas_sanchez28d ago

I mean, you said "canned green beans are just sad boiled mush" and I get that for sure, but I don't think that's totally fair to every brand. Idk, maybe it's just me but if you get the ones that are seasoned or the "french style" ones with some actual texture, they're not always terrible. I've made a decent green bean casserole with them for Thanksgiving and nobody complained. But I agree with your main point about donations being off. I live near Dearborn and volunteered at a pantry where they had so many cans of creamed corn nobody would touch, but people fought over the Rotel and refried beans. It's just weird how donation drives turn into this guessing game instead of just asking families what they actually want. Maybe it's just me thinking that a small survey or even a suggestion box at the pantry could fix half this problem.

adams.uma28d ago

Yeah people just donate what makes them feel good instead of what's actually useful, like buying half-price clearance stuff nobody wants.