this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2026
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askchapo

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33
How to prepare for food shocks if you run a soup kitchen? (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by Person@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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Let's say, hypothetically, I run a soup kitchen. We get donated goods that are mostly things about to expire, or considered too "imperfect" for sale. That is; things which are perfectly fine to eat, but businesses usually throw out, and will probably be less generous with as the crisis hits.

I can anticipate now that demand will increase on the soup kitchen's services, while simultaneously our inputs decrease....

I guess this may be an intractable problem, really. Other than trying to build new connections in the community, which usually takes a lot of time and energy, there's probably nothing that can be done. But, people on here have given me very thoughtful and clever answers before, so figured I'd ask.

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[–] reader@hexbear.net 3 points 1 day ago

Its hard to know what the shape of things to come will be.

If the shocks are just higher food prices due to higher diesel prices... That's a tough situation honestly because I don't see it opening up a lot of cracks in the existing food system. Stockpiling now is a good idea but will only carry you so far and you don't necessarily have a lot of resources to do so, by the sound of it?

If the shocks are more severe, with genuine shortages or breakdowns in parts of the distribution system, there may be opportunities that open up to provide your own transport or labor in collecting food from farms or other points in the supply chain yourself that commercial operators can't or won't bother with due to the cost or low availability of diesel. That would still require some of the hard work of building connections, but a crisis situation would make that easier in some ways. Volunteers with electric vehicles could be a real asset here in providing transport that isn't disabled or rationed?