Food banks

This week I want to talk about food banks.  First off, what is a food bank?

"A food bank or foodbank is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough food to avoid hunger."
(Wikipedia)

Okay, so we know what it's for, who it's for and how it works.  Thanks Wikipedia.

Now for a harder question: should we be giving food to food banks?

On the one hand you might say "Yes, of course.  If we don't give food to food banks, then the people who use them are going to starve. That's obvious. You stupid?

Okay, fair enough, but what happens to left over food from big supermarkets and restaurant chains, do they donate it to food banks?

Some do -- Sainsburys works with a charity called Fareshare, to redistribute food -- but not every company does its bit.

Did you know that 30-50% of all food produced in the UK is wasted, and that half of that total is from the food industry? (Source: McCarthy/Tesco)
That means that 15-25% of all our food is thrown away by businesses.

Now what if instead of binning it, they were to give it away to people who were poor?