PUNCHLINE
Ike Seneres
“Because
it’s there,” that was my reason for climbing mountains when I was younger, and
that is my reason now for wanting to build a Food Bank in the Philippines. We
can do it, and therefore let us do it. We have the technology, and we have the
food donors that are just waiting to be tapped.
As it is
said in the movie Six Million Dollar Man, “We have the technology, and we have
the capability to build the world’s first bionic man...” Well, it is not going
to take six million dollars to build this country’s first Food Bank, and that
is one more reason why we should build it.
It is
not only the technology that is favorable to building such a Food Bank, because
the economics also favors it.
Food
products have expiry dates, and that is the reason why the food manufacturers
and the food distributors have to move these products out of their warehouses
and out of the supermarket shelves before the expiry dates, otherwise they
would be forced to condemn these goods and thus lose money. One alternative for
them is to donate these goods to charity before the expiry dates, if and when
they are able to calculate that they would not be able to sell these goods
beforehand.
The
decision to donate as early as possible becomes easier for these manufacturers
and distributors to make, if they could get tax credits in exchange for these
goods, a business practice that is already routine and common in many other
countries. Fortunately for us in this country, the legal basis to issue tax
credits in exchange for food donations already exists, and the only component
that is lacking now is an organization that could support and sustain it. That
is the reason for building a Food Bank, and if only for that, we do not need
any other reason.
Building
a Food Bank might be a complex project, but in my simple mind, it is really
just software that is needed, running on hardware of course. Since we are not
lacking in companies that could support this worthy cause, the technical side
should not be a problem at all, including the data centers and the telecoms
connectivity that would keep it going. On the supply side, we could not be
lacking in food donations either, since this is a value added proposition that
no company official would even think of refusing, even if only for the sake of
corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Obviously,
we could not be lacking in food beneficiaries either, since there are many
charitable organizations that could accept food donations any time, all the
time. No matter how plentiful the food donations would be on the optimistic
side, there would always be many people who could consume these donations,
especially in this country with a very high incidence of hunger. By the way, a
Food Bank could serve another purpose, by being able to distribute food items
before their expiry dates, instead of ending up in the black market as unsafe
expired goods.
Accepting
canned and packaged food items is less complicated than accepting fresh and
unpacked items. In both cases however, there is a need for the Food Bank to
issue legal waivers that would free the donors from any legal liabilities in
case of problems such as food poisoning. Towards this end, it is also necessary
for the Food Bank to have its own quality control procedures for its own sake,
and for the sake of the beneficiaries who will consume the food donations.
While there may be some risks in doing this as a project, the advantages far
outweigh the disadvantages.
In this
time and age of email messages, text messages, social media and mass media, we
should not have any problem in informing the charitable organizations about the
availability of food items that could be picked up from the Food Bank, not to
mention the availability of Twitter and Instagram and all those popular
services. Picking up is actually just one option, because the food items could
also be delivered, considering that the delivery services could also be paid
for by using tax credits.
What is
the worst thing that could happen if we do not build a Food Bank? As usual,
food will just go to waste, and expired food items that are not fit for human
consumption might just end up in the black market. People will get hungry as
they always do, and perhaps no one might even notice. But since many people
actually die from hunger, we could actually save a lot of people from dying by
simply giving them food. I am sure that no one will blame me if I do not build
a Food Bank, but I am also sure that many people would be happy if I would
actually do it.
I do not
want to complicate what is simple, but there is actually another way of
procuring food items aside from exchanging these with tax credits. I am sure
that there are many people who would donate food items in exchange for nothing,
but instead of just a thank you note, we could also give barter credits that
would be honored by a barter exchange system that is also being established in
this country. I am talking about modern barter, wherein the exchanges are no
longer on a one-to-one basis, but it will already be on a one-to-many basis.
Aside
from food items, the Food Bank could also accept and distribute
non-prescription medicines, aside from vitamins and supplements. It is just
unfortunate that many good programs and projects like the Food Bank has not
made its way to this country, but it is not too late to correct that. Perhaps
we found good reasons not to build a Food Bank in the past, but we have run out
of reasons now why we should not do it, so let us do it.
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