I just read this, after I sent the following email, on the Colorado Share website. They expect each participant to "volunteer two hours per month," in addition to paying for groceries. At $10/hr., that's an extra $20/month!Here's my email to Colorado Share:
From Colorado Share website:
"The experience of picking up your "Share" of food at the host site is almost like a community party."
http://www.sharecolorado.com/index.cfm?action=how_does_share_work
But it wasn't. I sat and waited in a smelly, church basement, while two disorganized people scurried around the room, looking for their paperwork amongst maybe 15 boxes of food. Three people were ahead of me; they told 2 they were "short one . . ." and described the foodstuffs those people wouldn't receive until, maybe, next month.
My order was ready; it sat and waited mere feet from where I sat and waited. The volunteer couldn't remember my name, told twice, or find her papers.
My April box ($30) + produce box ($15) + spaghetti sauce ($1.45) were all crammed in one box, too heavy for me to lift. I started sorting through it, because I couldn't believe I'd paid $15 for so little produce, and surely, there was more to the April box than what I was seeing.
The produce couldn't be first quality, as promised on your website. The iceberg (no nutritional value) lettuce was wilted. The TWO lemons have mold on the skins. It's not, as stated on the website, food I would normally eat. I was hoping for locally-produced (as stated on the website) fruits and vegetables, and I got farm factory stuff in net or plastic packaging, mostly, with half a dozen oranges, 2 grapefruits, TWO tomatoes, 2 mangos, rolling around loose. The workers handled my food without gloves.
When I got it home, I read the can of spaghetti sauce, which cost me 50% more than I would have paid at a regular, retail grocery, on sale. It came from Canada: not local. The 2nd ingredient is water and the 3rd is HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, which is a leading cause of obesity & diabetes in the USA.
So, I spent $45 on overpriced, small-quantity, NONlocal, UNhealthy, molded and wilted junk I'd NEVER purchase at the grocery. When I usually spend $15 for produce, it's all highly nutritious and varied. It's enough to last 2 people 1 week. It's usually local and often organic. I have no idea where this stuff came from, but it was pitiful.
I ran a REAL, GOOD food pantry (and believe me, this FELT like a bad food pantry: I should be GRATEFUL for the chaos, short orders, confusion, mess and bad smells; they were doing me a FAVOR!) for TEN years. People got full orders, on time, without long waits. They were treted with dignity and respect. They got to choose individual items among catgories of foods, quantities based on stock available The food was wholesome, fresh nutritious and nontoxic. No, it wasn't "first quality;" It as from Roadrunner Food Bank. But we never gave out moldy, wilted stuff and we NEVER gave out high fructose corn syrup, lard, high salt or other toxins.
I'll be sure to tell all my friends.
-- Rogi Riverstone
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