Porcupine food bank

[Bald Eagle]

In light of some people moving to the Free State with little to nothing,

http://newhampshireunderground.com/forum/index.php?topic=10653.0

I thought it would be a great idea to start a sort of food-bank thing.
The idea has been brought up and talked about a little bit, but we've got some concrete goals to meet by helping out Porcs, so that goal may help the rest of the infrastructure get established.

Once, in college, I survived for a week solely on a large box of Minute Rice.

Warehouse stores like Sam's Club, Price Club, BJ's, etc have giant sacks of rice, flour, sugar and other staple foods.  If a few porcupines went in on a big sack, split up what they wanted, and gave the rest to the food bank, the bulk savings would make the donations cheap-to-free.

Some folks have metric tons of fresh garden vegetables looking for a home.

There are also a lot of things in people's pantries and kitchen drawers that they may not need or even want.  Every last calorie can help ease a new Porc's physical and psychological hardship and help get them on their feet so that they can make the transition from "wretched refuse" to realizing the American dream.

We can set something like this for Porcs to get the logistics worked out (sales, storage, distribution, etc.) and then maybe expand it to be a charity organization for folks in NH hit hard by the tax-and-spenders, the we-just-regulated/banned-you-out-of-a-jobbers, or the we-liked-your-home-so-we-took-its.

Anyone interested in discussing something like this is welcome to contact me by any of the usual methods.

[ArcRiley]

I thought it would be a great idea to start a sort of food-bank thing.

This is a great idea.  I'd personally like to see it combined with temporary housing (we're going to need it much more than we need it now) but just food is a good start.

I've put in about 2 years with a group called Food Not Bombs, an anarchist group that feeds the homeless "without the government's help".  Most soup kitchens are, after all, very much dependent on government funding.  We linked up with "Friendship Donation Network", which basically one elderly woman and a host of short-term volunteers worked with area supermarkets to get food which was about to expire, day old bread, etc.

One supermarket, Wegmans, gave her 1/6th of their storage space for her use.  She processes thousands of dollars worth of food a week, and she is why our local food pantries are always brimming.  Granted half of that is in bread and bagels.. but she pays nothing but gas out of pocket.

We may also find some people willing to donate produce from the Manchester Farmer's Market.  It doesn't hurt to ask.

Point is that the supermarkets get a tax writeoff and people who need food are fed.  We should be able to replicate what Mrs. Pines is doing here in Manchester.  This is very much in line with how the Irish organized support for their own people just getting off the boat in NYC who spent all their resources for the trip (or were forcibly exiled).  We need to take care of our own, but with all the food being thrown away we need not do so out of our own pockets.

Some folks have metric tons of fresh garden vegetables looking for a home.

This is very applicable today.  It won't be in three months through the Spring.

[dawn]

This is an awesome idea! I might even have a small amount of storage space to help get this going...and a membership at costco....and a nice big garden.

[Dreepa]

I may be able to help with canning and buying in bulk.

[Jared]

i like it

[Rosie the Riveter]

Once, in college, I survived for a week solely on a large box of Minute Rice.

Mine was a big box of elbow noodles, but in looking back it feels like a month that I had to eat it every meal of every day and out of the micowave no less I remember selling (yes, I'm dating myself) my rollerblades to buy the noodles, till I finally got a job at the theater and I was back on my salad and beer....

I'd be glad to donate -- food or money.

[Rosie the Riveter]

I pretty much lived on Kraft macaroni and cheese in college. Sometimes they'd go on sale for something like 8 boxes for a dollar and I would stock up!

Yuck....I can taste the metallic cheese flavor right now.

[error]

Ramen noodles here. If I had a bit of extra money I would buy that huge 3 pound bag of smoked sausages and chop a few of those up and throw them in.

[Rosie the Riveter]

Ramen noodles here. If I had a bit of extra money I would buy that huge 3 pound bag of smoked sausages and chop a few of those up and throw them in.

Ohhh... smoked sausages and ramen.... uhhhh...

I've got some frozen veggies I could donate to your ramen....

[Fluff and Stuff]

Yall sure ate some cheap food in college.  I just don't know how yall were able to do that.

Also, this seems like a pretty good idea.

About crashing at people's houses for a short amount of time.  I have found, as long as you know pro-freedom person (even online for a year) they are often willing to let you crash at their place for a short amount of time (and it helps if you can give them a good reason why you want to crash at their place).

[error]

Ramen noodles here. If I had a bit of extra money I would buy that huge 3 pound bag of smoked sausages and chop a few of those up and throw them in.

Ohhh... smoked sausages and ramen.... uhhhh...

I've got some frozen veggies I could donate to your ramen....

Thanks dear, but I don't eat ramen noodles anymore.

[Nicholas Gilman]

   I  can get a deep discount on some pantry items like mac and cheese,
instant oatmeal, cereal, microwave popcorn, etc.  Shipping is the issue.

[Kat Kanning]

Seems like donations of used dishes, furniture - household stuff - would be useful also.

[Fluff and Stuff]

Seems like donations of used dishes, furniture - household stuff - would be useful also.

Well, there already are large Freecycle groups all over NH so I am not sure if that is really needed.  In fact, Freecycle numbers tend to be higher in NH per capita than most of New England.
http://www.freecycle.org/groups/usnortheast/#New%20Hampshire

Maybe used dishes and silverwave but for most needed things, there is a ton of it already out there for free in NH.

[ladyattis]

I think a general mission statement of the proposed food bank is a good start. What you had posted initially looks like the beginnings of one to me. What I would suggest is to start looking at potential locations for storage, offices for counseling (seeing who's just hitting a rough patch and needs to get back into work and what not), and possible regular sponsors (businesses, and folks you can count on). If you focus on the issue of individual liberty and self-reliance, I think your idea would work well.

-- Brede