A food bank for the hungry

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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