Who burnt the beans!

The Donated Diet Day 1
Well the day started innocently enough with instant coffee. Been a number of years since I have had instant coffee and forgot how little I enjoy it! I also had cheerio’s for breakfast. Not a big stretch as I do frequently.
I also decided if I have some of the larger items I would use what I had here and not open a box or package when I have one already open. The box I got I will give back to the food bank.
My morning seemed to be spent talking about the results of yesterdays summit and the diet. I talked to a reporter who was interested in hearing more about it.
I also dove into the box to do some menu planning. I noticed something that happens with some food that is donated. It was close coded or expired. Close coded is when the best before date is about to expire, or has expired. Caution always has to be exercised when that happens.
I opened the 3 items and found that they were indeed past. The metallic smell of the pineapple gives it away. I have a safe food handling certificate. What could have happened to someone who didn’t?
Lunch was an adventure. I opened a can of pork and beans. Added in some pepper and turned on the stove. The phone range and before I could get back to them well they were warm and a bit burnt. Keeping in mind trying to see what it was like, I knew some people may not be able to throw them out and open another can. So I ate them. With a can of tomato juice that was in the box.
Not the best meal I have had but with Rolaids it was sufficient.
I stopped this afternoon at St Albans Church in Glen Williams. They are a Tuesday drop off point for “Food for Life”. An organisation that distributes fresh food to a variety of drop off locations within Halton Region.
Walking into St Albans was truly humbling, not by the volume of food they may have given out today, but for the work they all do to assist people to get food who need it.
Today they had distributed food to 56 people when I had arrived. They were getting ready to pack up but they knew a regular had not dropped in and they did not want him to miss out. They also deliver food to people who call in.
Some of the items they had today were red and Spanish onions, peppers, romaine lettuce, ground beef, salmon, sausages and rabbit. They also had pepper squash and Anise.
Father Aaron Orear takes the initiative to find recipes for different vegetables that comes in so people who take them can cook with confidence.
I had heard one of the difficulties facing people who are on “food bank diets” is the type of food tends to be processed, high in starch, carbs, sugar and salt. Imagine if my Doctor said I had to lose weight and cut down blood pressure!
The relief I felt over seeing the meat was it opened up what dinner could be. I had a box of hamburger Helper but no meat. So I substituted ground beef I had at home, added in a pepper and onion and went to cook.
I had Hamburger helper, with onions, peppers and green beans. A snack during the evening was a orange stolen fromt eh poverty summit yesterday.
It will be interesting to step on the scale in the morning after the high fibre starch laden meals today.
So why do we figure someone who goes to a food bank is okay eating past expired food we would not?