A person could have a whole full-time occupation just trying to use and / or give away food that’s being discarded but is still good. Oftentimes the surplus food ends up being far away from the hungry people.
Today it’s 15 little cartons of skim milk and about as many cartons of juice. All have been sitting in a friend’s freezer as they were unwanted by clients of a meal distribution service.
If any of this sounds like blaming anybody, it’s not. This is a reality of life in a society where people are spread out and the distribution doesn’t always match where the needs are.
My friend hates to waste food as much as I do, but she didn’t want to drink the milks and juices herself.
The church down the street wasn’t answering its bell or phone. And a friend I called from another church said his church probably wouldn’t want them — which I understand because it’s perishable and they don’t know where the stuff has been.
I share a fridge and freezer with two housemates so there’s usually not freezer space for so many items.
For various reasons, today I have taken the approach to keep the juices and use them up soon in some sort of beverage to share.
And to try making homemade evaporated milk from the milks. I’ve never made evaporated milk before but I have seen instructions online. In short, you cook it down by simmering for 45 minutes or an hour or so. Don’t let it boil.
Today I’ll try doing one batch in the solar oven and one on the stove burner. I’ll reduce it to as small a volume as possible and then use it in cooking and baking.
BTW I’m really happy because as of yesterday I finally have a nice little swivel stand for the solar oven. I took apart a chair someone had thrown away at curbside. Removed the wheels, and the chair back. This was after trying to use the chair as is. The oven kept slipping off and being hard to keep level and so on. My latest version of the swivel-stand consists of only the horizontal part of the seat, plus the legs with the wheels removed.
Fun fact (NOT!): Did you know that sometimes people maliciously tamper with food before giving it to homeless / hungry people? Like as a hideous ghoulish prank.
So even if there were a bunch of people around right now possibly wanting a little carton of milk or juice — which there aren’t because they are laying low, understandably — it’s gotten harder to distribute surplus food.
The craziest examples are for example sometimes pounds and pounds of whole shelled pecans or walnuts will show up, then make its way through the neighborhood as unwanted surplus. Some fancy thing that retails for $15 or $20 a pound but there’s a huge surplus and it just ends up at the curbside. Dried cranberries and so on, I kid you not. Or cans and cans of salmon.
(I love all kinds of fish, fresh or canned, and was able to use a lot of the extra as bait for the trap neuter release effort in our neighborhood where we are trying to get the feral cats spayed and neutered.)
Well, just some thoughts on using up surplus food that’s gotten jammed in the distribution system. I’ll let you know how the evaporated milk experiment goes.
I really admire people who run food pantries and can cook something and a bunch of people will want to show up and eat it. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and I really appreciate the work you all are doing.
Photos of the solar setup etc. here.
Update: The evaporated-milk experiment is working.