Although TCK has been in the business of feeding people for almost 25 years, there are some myths still floating about.

TCK only feeds the homeless.

Yes, there are homeless people, but the majority of the population we serve is the working poor – honest, hard-working people struggling to support themselves and their families.

I wouldn't eat there; they get old food out of dumpsters.

TCK “reclaims” food before it is thrown away. We make every effort to provide good healthy meals. You should experience the meals. Hard to believe it! Our chefs do a great job!

There are no hungry people in Keene—so The Kitchen must be small.

Many people do not realize the entire scope of work or how much is accomplished at TCK. Last year we served almost 900,000 meals to more than 11,000 area individuals – that’s the size of a small town!

It costs a lot of money to feed all those people.

It does cost but here’s how we keep it to a minimum. TCK pays $0.18 a pound transportation charge for much of the food purchased at the NH Food Bank. We receive free USDA food; however, the USDA programs have about half the available food as last year due to major government cuts to farmers. Monetary donations enable the purchase of some food. The bulk of our food, about 70%, is “reclaimed” food product from distributors, supermarkets, convenience stores, nurseries, farm stands and individuals BEFORE the product is thrown away.

Last year it amounted to 1,495,047 pounds of food. Wow! Picture that in one huge pile!

Why is there wasted food?

Most people do not realize- when manufacturers and distributors transport product if there is any damage, the pallet can be refused. When this happens, the pallet of food is marked “salvage” meaning it is to be thrown into a dumpster. In most cases, it is more economical to throw it away than pay for return transportation and handling. There are also food safety reasons for this procedure. Sometimes there are delivery mistakes, over ordering, unsold/over produced product. There may be time-sensitive promotional products or some items that have less of a single ingredient - all this ends up as unwanted as it cannot be sold. This produces millions of pounds of food each year. Fortunately for TCK and other food banks and pantries throughout the nation, we are able to reclaim a portion of this food. In turn, all the food banks and pantries distribute the reclaimed food to the hundreds of thousands of people who need help to feed themselves and their families.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could reclaim ALL the salvage food? Perhaps we could end malnutrition and hunger!