Spoiled food

[Silver R/T]

http://www.netscape.com/viewstory/2007/04/13/tons-of-food-spoiled-as-fema-ran-out-of-storage-space/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2007%2F04%2F12%2FAR2007041202411.html%3Fnav%3Drss_email%2Fcomponents&frame=true
what a waste of taxpayer money, I feel bad when I write check to "feed the children" fund just to find out that somewhere out there they just throw away all that food that could've saved lives.

[charger490]

silver
i never give any money to any people that ASK for money.. i only give to people in my town that i think need some.most of the money going to untited way ,cancer fund save the children and so on goes to the pople that run them

[400/6/PAC]

I always thought that RED CROSS and SALVATION ARMY were respectable places to donate.
Thats where my donations go.

[Silver R/T]

silver
i never give any money to any people that ASK for money.. i only give to people in my town that i think need some.most of the money going to untited way ,cancer fund save the children and so on goes to the pople that run them

So you're saying its not worth it, its a big scam? I guess Ill just save my money for myself and be selfish asshole. Although I dont like helping out welfare leechers that dominate in majority of my town. I see dish on their apartments/rents while they usually do not work and get free money/food stamps/medical care. I don't think its fair when working people cannot afford these things ie dish, pay for medicine.

[Old Moparz]

I get burned up whenever I read or hear about how a donation didn't make it to the party that needed it. I think the earliest one I can recall was in the late 70's when I read about how the president (or some chairman of the board) of UNICEF was leaving/fired from his position. With his salary, severance pay, & such, he got nearly $1 million just to leave. I remember bringing the small cardboard boxes home from school as a kid & collecting change for UNICEF. I thought I was doing a good deed in helping at the time, but now I can't help think about how I went around as this guys personal beggar. 

The local paper here once did a story on the volunteer ambulance corps. & fire companies, & how they raise money. They hire professional charity collection companies to do it. They said that if they tried to do it themselves, they would only raise a portion of what the pros give them after they take their cut. The pros kept up to 60% of it as their fee, but the percentage they ended up with was much higher than if they stood at an intersection with a tin cup or went door to door asking. The crappy part is that the people who donate are now angry that maybe 60 cents of the dollar they gave went to collecting it.

It sucks that people can make money from other people's misfortunes.   

[Troy]

Let's be clear about this - it's FEMA, not a charity. The money used was tax dollars and not donations. Even if it were a charity they'd still be lambasted publicly though. The reason they overspent was to be better prepared so there wasn't another hurricane fiasco like Katrina. Yep, they managed to blow it but if they did not have the supplies ready and a hurricane hit it would have been open season on FEMA (again). Unfortunately, they can't catch a break even when trying to do things right. I'd rather see $40 million wasted because we were "too prepared" than billions wasted because we weren't. How much is it that Michigan is wanting to spend to give every kid an iPod?

Crazy math here... "as many as 6 million meals" costs $40 million dollars? Are those things really almost $7 each? I bet the people who have to eat them for weeks at a time barely appreciate the $21 per day they're consuming.

Troy

[RECHRGD]

Troy is correct, FEMA is a government agency and we all know that anything controlled by the govornment will run like a well oiled machine, right?  As far as charities go, I've always been pretty leary of any organized group wanting you to open up your wallet for them.  After hurricane Katrina my wife saw a plea on TV from the Red Cross people for donations to help out the victims.  We had a ton of clothes in great to new condition and the wife called to find out where the drop-off locations were.  They would not accept any food or clothing.  The only acceptable donation was MONEY.