As a natural part of their operations, many farmers and food processing facilities find themselves with produce or product at the end of their growing or production season that is unsellable due to its size or appearance. Many of these organizations are extremely generous with excess product and choose to donate their overruns or unsellable stock to charities or food shelters.
While these generous actions certainly benefit many in the community, large scale donations of produce or food products is not an inexpensive process for farmers and food production facilities. Limiting the costs of such donations could free up much needed operating capital that could lead to opportunities for even greater generosity in the future.
Let’s explore the costs associated with food donations, and strategies for limiting the expense associated with charitable donations.
Important Costs to Consider When Donating Excess Produce
Farmers and food producers who donate excess produce are likely to incur a number of expenses in the execution of their charitable efforts. Common expenses include:
- Product costs: While much of the produce donated to charitable organizations is deemed unsellable or as excess stock, there is still the value of the product to be considered. Any produce donated rather than sold could be seen as an expense.
- Labor: Excess produce doesn’t magically transport itself from the field or stock room to the charity. Harvesting the product and inserting it into produce packaging for delivery takes time and manual labor, and the costs associated with it.
- Produce packaging: The produce packaging used to store, transport and deliver produce donations is one of the most overlooked expenses involved in the process. Branded or custom printed produce packaging can be expensive and takes a long time to order and receive. Any branded produce packaging used in donations also reduces the organization’s stock of branded packaging to use for actual sales.
These costs, while not insignificant, rarely stop farmers and food production facilities from providing generous and much needed donations to local food shelves and larger charitable organizations.
Control Costs When Donating Excess Produce - Consider Generic Packaging
As noted, there are multiple costs associated with the charitable donation of excess produce. The only truly controllable costs mentioned relates to the produce packaging used to deliver the produce. Rather than using branded packaging, consider using generic packaging.
Generic packaging is non-branded or sports a generic brand rather than a company logo and is not customized in any way. This type of packaging is usually stocked by local distributors, making it easy to source. Most importantly, generic packaging is cheaper than branded produce packaging as it requires no special ordering, printing or sizing.
Using generic produce packaging when donating excess product can help you save money and maximize your charitable efforts.
Ask Your Distributor About Generic Packaging
At National Bulk Bag, we would be proud to help you maximize your charitable giving programs. We have relationships with many vendors who stock generic produce packaging and can help you explore the most cost-effective options for your excess product donations.
Contact us to learn more about using generic produce packaging in your giving programs.
Your Agriculture Bag Needs From Farm to Retail
We stock one of the largest inventories of agricultural produce bags in the United States. Whether you are packing potatoes, oranges, seed, onions, , firewood or any other produce, we stock or can manufacture a bag to meet your requirements.
We are the produce bag experts and are ready to provide you with:
- One of the largest stock inventories in the U.S.
- Same-day shipping, and just-in-time delivery.
- Custom bag solutions.
- Manufacturing, warehouse solutions, and distribution located coast to coast.
To gain access to our comprehensive Agricultural Produce Bags In-Stock List click the button below!
