Americans like to lend a helping hand to the less fortunate during Thanksgiving and Christmas — by giving them low-quality foodstuffs such as ramen and frosted cereal.
As reported by the Associated Press, many food banks have asked donors to start dropping off food they would consider eating themselves, rather than crap they wouldn't even ingest during a drunken bet.
As it turns out, most people unload salt- and sugar-laden canned goods at food banks. They tend to do this rather than provide equally inexpensive, more wholesome picks to society's most vulnerable.
These items can aggravate chronic health problems — or worse.
Junk food could kill Dorothy Jones, a 63-year-old who visits a food bank once a month, the AP reports. The retiree has no choice but to go to the community pantry because her Social Security checks don't cover her expenses. Jones tells the AP that she has to watch her sugar intake and can't eat a lot of salt, fat, or carbs — because of a recent heart attack.
Jones doesn't take it personally that donors' laziness might be her undoing.
"She understands the impulse to try to lift people's spirits with cookies and other treats," the AP reports.