I am formulating a diabolical plan.

[LochnarITB]

And I would love to sit down and feed these people some of the "vittles" they donated. It is their way of insulting and injuring the poor.

While I applaud the evil genius turnabout is fair play sentiment behind your plan, I also agree that doing so would more likely stifle future donations. I don't believe that most people make such donations with the intent of insulting and injuring the poor. More so, I think such donations come from the thought that buying cheap allows high quantity, thus "filling" the shelves that are said to be empty. Their thought process needs to be changed. To that end, I do think it is a good idea to have a dinner made of a small portion of the donated goods. If the dinner was made strictly of the donated goods, missing or poor quality items would be apparent and I think most people would get the point.

I also think that part of the reason people donate as they do is buying such items in bulk is easy. Perhaps it would benefit everyone if the food shelves met them half way. It would take some volunteer effort, but how about setting up a food donations registry just as a couple would set up a wedding registry? When the invitations are sent out, include a small flier outlining a few days/evenings when a volunteer would be stationed at a certain local grocer. I would guess the grocer would allow a table to be set up and truck parked for the promise of extra sales. The volunteer would be there not only to suggest and check off items as they are donated but could also recommend brands that allow the most bang for the buck while still being of a quality that we would all expect of our food. If it would only require a few minutes of their busy lives to grab a short list of items and quantities, I think people would be willing to open their pocketbooks. Another suggestion is something that is done by at least one of our local chains up here. They actually have a rack of pre-shopped bags full of donations in different quantities. If you felt like you could afford $10 this week, you would grab the $10 bag and run it through the checkout. There is then a drop box near the exit where these are dropped off to be gathered and taken to the food shelves. When I have done this, it seems that the drop box is usually full, hopefully because of high participation rather than slow pick ups.