We try to respect cultural choices. Also, I get the cooking thing - a guy yesterday just took white bread and asked for canned fruit but no canned vegetables and only bologna for his meat. I guessed that he might be living without food heating abilities and asked if he would also like canned tuna and he said yes.
if people ask for no pork, we give them one extra beef (which doesn't balance the quantity)
i have no no problem with the pigs eating the stale stuff. I am a big fan of the chickens who are gifting the food bank their eggs eating the stale stuff, I am just not sure MY chickens should be eating the stale stuff, but I am getting pressure to take it and I don't want to seem judgmental or condescending. I try to go with grateful. I definitely don't want it thrown out because I didn't take it! And I do want to respect the flow of food. I do understand about running out of macaroni because we didn't have room to stock more because there was a 25lb bag of rice in the way....
also, not all food banks have cooking or nutrition help. We don't. I had a conversation one day with a woman who picked up a yellow squash and asked what it was. I told her "summer squash." And when she asked "what do you do with it?" I gave her some simple prep ideas. I also once told someone you don't have to make coleslaw out of chopped cabbage - you can put it in salads, sauces, soups, and stir fries. I think I lost them after "salad". I lost all the other volunteers by "stir fry".
There is always a governing member of the food bank present when we are open. So, I suppose I should consider the fully open taking of food items to be their concern rather than mine. The rules are somewhat unclear. I am receiving them verbally a bit at a time as things come up. I didn't sign in the first four weeks because no one had mentioned it.