"Ted Mittelstaedt" > wrote in message
...
>
>
> That's the cruel reality of it. To be sure, you can make the
> argument that many of the poor people aren't on the food stamp
> program simply because they are ignorant about the social
> services that their state has, and that doing it this way gets
> the poor people the help they need to pull themselves out of
> the poorhouse. That doesen't really quite hide the fact from
> anyone who can put 2 and 2 together that the grocers aren't
> participating for purely altruistic reasons..
>

Even without the food stamp program restrictions, I don't think grocers
participate for purely altrusitic reasons. IANAA but I'm pretty sure they
get a tax deduction for charitable contributions for donating food.

The choice for them would therefore be to throw it out and get nothing or to
donate it, have some administrative/bookkeeping expense, and get a nice
deduction that lowers their taxes -- and gets them some goodwill in the
community in which they do business.

Seems like a no-brsiner to me, but IANAGrocer, either.

Anny