Homemade shalach manus - bal tashchis

ShishKabob

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:03 am

I don't get the point of this post. For those that give bought stuff they don't need the shout out. For those of us that give homemade, we are not planning on making a few types just so that we can please you.
I think it's best if you send out a notice to all that are planning to give you mishloach manos that you are accepting only packaged items.

Mishloach Manos is supposed to generate good feelings.
I'm scratching my head here.

mfb

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:04 am

amother DarkGreen wrote:

These posts are so high school.
EWWWW gross, human hands actually touched thaaat?
I wonder if all these people posting this every year (!) are all from the same community/demographic. Where I live we all give and get yummy homemade stuff. Challa, dips, muffins, ice coffee's, shakes, homemade granolas and kugels. YUM. bring it on! As long as it packaged nicely and labled properly it will be received with love Heart

And I wonder if these same people ever in their lives eat out at restaurants and take out places.
Yes I know they wear gloves, but they can touch their faces with the gloves also….
I’d much rather someone I knows germs then some random worker in a store Wink

ShishKabob

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:05 am

mfb wrote:

You kidding me? There's a reason why they don't let you go back there and see what takes place in the kitchen..

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:20 am

mfb wrote:

You think cooks and chefs wear gloves?
They don't.

amother

Catmint

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:22 am

I wish we could go back to the days that an apple and an orange was shaloch manos and it was given on a stapled plate to look like a Hamentashen, that kids decorated.

After many yrs I finally broke down and started baking. Simple mini cakes Dunkin Hines -
At 99 cents a box, I can make 6 mini cakes, and a glaze costs pennies
It’s just simple economics

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:23 am

amother Rainbow wrote:

And there I was thinking that there was no such thing as too many iced coffees. You learn something new every day!
(We probably get one a year and me and my husband ration it out between us. The kids don;t even know about it! I'll happily come to your house OP, and take care of your iced coffee problem.)

In Israel ice coffee isn't a thing AFAIK. Never received one.

bigsis144

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:30 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

You think cooks and chefs wear gloves?
They don't.

I worked in an industrial kitchen for 2 years, can confirm. (I’m not a professional chef, just the assistant kitchen manager)

We had gloves available and most of us used them for some tasks but not everything, depending on if you needed the tactile feedback of actually touching the food while you made it, if you were in a rush, if washing your hands would just be faster and easier than putting on yet another pair of gloves (putting gloves on hands that are even a little wet is very annoying)… yeah, you definitely have had multiple people’s hands touch your food.

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:34 am

amother OP wrote:

- many people don’t eat from at home bakeries that don’t have a hechsher

- the homemade perishables make me more sad than shelf stable because those at least can go to cleaning lady

- organizations don’t accept homemade.

- if you dump a box of purim leftovers in a local shul intended for people in need it will also go to the garbage. I have a relative who is a Gabbai - he told me he hangs up sign to please not leave purim food and no one listens and janitor has to throw it out

- iced coffees make me the most sad TBH. That’s so much milk wasted that could feed children. One year I decided to combine all the iced coffees into one large pitcher and offer a pitcher of iced coffee to someone who wants it after purim. No one wanted it because you never know what kind of milk is in it. Cholov stam, OUde, I had no takers and cleaning lady didn’t want either.

Givers of iced coffee definitely need to state of it's Chalav Israel or Chalav Stam.
I have the impression people spend time and money on packaging but totally neglect proper labeling.

amother

Snowdrop

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 9:39 am

Bnei Berak 10 wrote:

THANK YOU ShishKabob!!
It's a *fact* that food poisoning happens far more in restaurants and public establishments compared to a home.

I've gotten mm with perishable items that sat in a car being driven around for 2 hours while the sun was beating down (Purim can be warm where I live). Sorry, I will not donate or give away stuff that could make someone sick. I certainly won't eat it. A shelf stable container of J&J iced coffee is fine in this scenario, but not a homemade salad with mayonnaise in the dressing or a container of yogurt or whatnot.

TravelHearter

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 10:08 am

I’m someone who tries doesn’t really buy from home bakeries that don’t have a hechsher. But there’s a difference between that and MM!
When I get MM, it’s from people who know me well, therefore I know them well, and I know what level of kashrus they keep. My husband is not a Rav or a boss or anything that would necessitate people who I don’t know bringing. Just like I would eat in those peoples homes, so too I would eat their MM.
For home bakeries, I usually don’t know them and see a random ad for them.

Bnei Berak 10

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 10:08 am

amother Snowdrop wrote:

On this one I agree.
People don't have cooling boxes?
Question: What is this thing with the iced coffee on imamother?! Speechless

Fail to understand the hype and I want my coffee hot.

amother

Peachpuff

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 10:59 am

amother Snowdrop wrote:

I guess youre not going to agree with op on her favorite mm of packaged deli and packaged buns.

I guess you cant make everybody happy.

(FTR, Im happy to get deli and get at least one package a year. Its usually saved for shobbos.)

amother

Azure

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 11:22 am

So tone deaf all these posts.
We can't afford to give fancy store bought MM.
We are going super simple. If I had a little extra time I would bake something. So much cheaper. Instead I am giving out a few snacks and that's it. It is too expensive otherwise.

Person A wants no homemade.
B wants nothing unhealthy.

I need cheap and easy. I don't care if it isn't "classy" or fancy. I work crazy hours and can't afford my rent, tuition, and food. Let alone MM. No one would know looking at us.

Stop judging.

watergirl

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 11:32 am

amother Snowdrop wrote:

Actually I saw on a Top Chef episode (if you know what that is) on a picnic challenge, foods with mayo are actually the best for sitting out on a hot day; something in the mayo actually acts as a preservative and protects the food. I don't get it but it's what they said. And per mayo clinic (no pun intended), food with mayo is SAFE outdoors in the hot sun for up to two hours. So you are fine to eat it.

amother

Thu, Mar 07 2024, 11:36 am

watergirl wrote:

If the salami was precut and packaged, and you have no idea who sent it, I'm surprised given the rest of your posts that you ate it, not knowing how long it's been out of the fridge and not knowing who cut it and what hechsher it had.

The point I was trying to make, which I think you missed, is not to send the cute girl home with her iced coffee, it's to tell everyone BEFORE PURIM not to send you any MM at all and to send tzedakka cards. You can't tell people what to bring and what not to bring, so just tell them not to bring.

The salami was obviously cut and packaged by a manufacturer with a hechsher. That’s not important.

Shuls are not equipped to distributing homemade leftovers post purim in a way that there won’t be waste. Many shuls don’t allow homemade food to be served at a kiddish because of kashrus. It’s not on the shul to organize that all the food dropped off not go to waste.
I don’t know of a single organization that accepts homemade shalach manus leftovers if you do please send it our way.

No way about telling everyone. I see how personally everyone took the POV from someone who doesn’t eat others homemade things that don’t have a hechsher. I’d rather everyone drop off their iced coffees and there be baal tashchis than make the iced coffee neighbors angry like the woman on this thread are.

P.S. the iced coffee bothers me the most. That is milk that had the coffee not been added could have nourished children.
Cups of 12-16 oz of milk flavored with caffeine that could go a long way for a child.
Also, most humans can only drink one or two coffees a day.