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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b>From:</b> spike@rainier66.com <spike@rainier66.com> <br><br><b><o:p></o:p></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><b>>…</b><span style='color:black'> In reality I was spending the day collecting donated food and hauling it to the local charity, in accordance with the exhortation of Second Hezekiah chapter 97 verse 82: “Verily I say unto thee, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, do so in that order if she is hot.”</span>…<span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Something interesting happened today. We went out soliciting food donations last weekend, then this weekend we took the scouts out to collect the donations. The drill is to haul it back to the local food pantry and donated clothing closet, but then the big job begins. They end up getting a lotta stuff that is past the best by date, and aaaaallllll of that must be discarded. For reasons I don’t understand… the food pantry is not allowed to GIVE AWAY food which is past the best by date, which makes ZERO sense to me, ZERO. Even if it is BEST by some arbitrary date, it is still GOOD by some later date. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>There is a local grocery store which buys up deeply discounted lots, failed marketing experiments, oddball stuff, plenty of stuff that is past its best by date still on the shelves, because it is OK to SELL stuff past the best by date, but not OK to GIVE the damn stuff away. Oy vey.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>So… why do I get stirred over that, you may well ask. Because a bunch of those little cans of albacore (the 5 ounce cans (PERFECT on salty crackers for long days hiking up in the local hills (because fish punches so far above its weight in food value per gram (but is kinda pricy (but I buy it anyway (ja that stuff)))))) were donated today, a biiiig heavy box of them, which I cheerfully accepted realizing those 72 cans of albacore would cost 200 bucks. Come to find out… it was a few weeks beyond its best by date, not expiration, because probably everyone here knows you can eat canned foods for 3 to 5 years past that best by date and scarcely notice the difference, particularly if one had covid a few months ago and STILL can’t really taste much of anything.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>By the cruelty of the rules as written, the food pantry isn’t allowed to give it away if it is past the best by date, and they can’t sell it either because they aren’t licensed to sell food at that place. Donated food either hasta be given away or discarded, and this was slightly past its peak, so every can of that marvelous stuff, 72 cans… went into the dumpster. I told the lady who runs the place: Meh, rules schmools, just look over that way, I’ll grab the box, life is good. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>But she wouldn’t have it. She offered younger cans of tuna, but I wouldn’t have it, because then a person who can’t afford it wouldn’t get whatever I took. So… no albacore for the old Spikester.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Sheesh.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>BillK, is Britain any more sane than this place? Any homes for sale in your neighborhood?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>spike<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>