Joe wrote:


Talk about waste...
Last week I visited a friend who has three or four acres of garden out
in the country. He grows most everything he needs foodwise and always
has a surplus to share. This year was an unusually good one for
potatoes and he wound up with about 2 tons of Kenebeck (sp.?) and
Yukon Gold spuds. He called every service agency in the Yellow pages
to see if their clients would want some of the bounty and was turned
down flatly, hearing over and over, 'We only want money or canned
goods.' The solution to the surplus could be to put the veggies in
big boxes by the side of the road with a large sign, "FREE!" and see
how many shiny SUV's stop to load up. Apparently the homeless and
underprivileged aren't suffering all that much.

Joe

He could have called he

http://www.feedingamerica.org/how_to_help/donate_food/

And those John Edwards wannabes whose pictures appear on every bus
wanting to help (themselves) are cut out of the loop when food donations
to a charity are concerned by the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan food
donation act (P.L. 104-210):

The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act

On October 1, 1996, President Clinton signed the Bill Emerson Good
Samaritan Food Donation Act to encourage the donation of food and
grocery products to non-profit organizations for distribution to needy
individuals. This law makes it easier to donate. Here's how:

It protects donors from liability when donating to a non-profit
organization.


It protects donors from civil and criminal liability should the product
donated in good faith later cause harm to the needy recipient.


It standardizes donor liability exposure. Donors and their legal counsel
no longer have to investigate liability laws in 50 states.


It sets a liability floor of "gross negligence" or intentional
misconduct for persons who donate grocery products. (See Act text for
further definitions.)

Congress recognized that the provision of food close to recommended date
of sale is, in and of itself, not grounds for finding gross negligence.
For example, cereal can be donated if it is marked close to code date
for retail sale.

The bill was named for Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Missouri) who fought for the
proposal but died of cancer before it was passed. The text of this Act
follows:


http://www.licares.org/General_Infor...aritan_Act.htm