The year 2020 is a very strange one and is revealing crazy flaws in how our world functions at a very basic level.
Apropos of this story, while millions of people are suddenly out of work and struggling to keep food on the table, some farmers are being forced to throw their products in the trash because they’re unable to sell them.
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Many people have asked why that unsaleable food can’t be donated instead.
Which is a fair question with a complicated answer that many fine journalists have been investigating.
At its most basic, the answer is that producers are donating what they can, but due to the steep drop in demand, limited storage capabilities, and lack of revenue to pay for more storage or transport, a lot of perishable items just can’t make it to where they may be needed most.
Individual consumers buying a gallon of milk at the supermarket are a small portion of the dairy market.
School milk programs aren’t running, restaurants are closed, and businesses that use milk to make other products (like cheese or yogurt) are also seeing declines in demand. So they are buying less of the raw ingredients.
But cows don’t stop producing milk, and if all your storage is full and you have a cow that needs to be milked, then the drain may be the only option.
Thankfully, as the crisis has continued, alternative options are finally being figured out.
In Syracuse, New York, dairy farmers have teamed up with the local branch of the Salvation Army and other charitable organizations to donate and distribute 9,000 gallons of milk to families in need throughout New York state.
The milk will be delivered weekly at no cost to the families.
Milk is a particularly good thing to have in times when access to healthy, inexpensive food may be limited, since it is filling and nutritious.
The Salvation Army says that deliveries will continue for the foreseeable future.
Hopefully, this will be just one of many partnerships between food producers and organizations with the infrastructure to put that food into the hands of people who need it.
h/t: CBS New York
