Updated following the donation collection and delivery on October 22, 2018.
Footnotes:
1 Food donations to 501(c)3 registered food banks (such as CORA) are tax deductible; donated food is valued at $1.78 per pound. According to the June 2017 “Feeding America Product Valuation Study, KPMG, Audited,” the average wholesale value of these groceries is $1.78 per pound.
2 The average weight of one bag of donated food in our collections is = 8 pounds, producing an estimated AVERAGE value of $14.25 per bag (8 x $1.78). NOTE that in our community collections, we weigh each bag during the delivery at the CORA Food Bank and we do not count the bags. The bag equivalency value is cited here for the convenience of donors and for comparison with those communities that document their collections by bag count. Our residents pack their own bags, which we then collect; therefore, the weights can range from a few pounds to over 15 pounds, with the documented average being 8 pounds. In larger communities, donated bags of food are taken to a central location, where the content is sorted and re-bagged. The weight of bags in those “processed” collections is higher and can be typically 12 or more pounds per bag.
3Total weight delivered x 8 pounds (the average weight of each bag).
4The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) guidelines define a meal as 1.2 pounds of food. “What We Eat in America (WWEIA)” 2017.
