So much wasted food from mishloach manos

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 4:06 am

why cant things be frozen? thats what we do. anything perishable that we dont eat that day we put in to the freezer. I dont see the big deal. salads? we kepp until they would go off and then its like any salad that we would have made that would go off.

sensitiveima

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 5:05 am

Are we the only ones who get an obscene amount of candy?That's my biggest problem - keeping my kids' candy consumption down, and explaining that giving some of it away is for their own good - not a sacrifice!
I personally love the home-cooked food, because I love trying new things. I think this year I'll be more aware of the food's temperature, though...hmm... the cooler by the door sounds like a good idea

33055

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 5:29 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

My problem is three fold. I don't like eating or serving frozen food. It seems to lose its taste to me. Many people prepare in advance and the food you receive had already been frozen once or even twice already. Think of a deliroll. Many use frozen pastry. They defrost and prepare. They freeze it until Purim. Then to refreeze? Many of my friends have done their baking already.

The second problem is the volume of the junk food. My children are not nosh eaters and I don't want them used to eating garbage.

The third problem is with the prepared food itself. I won't always eat by certain people and people do regift.

One year, we had an issue with a slice of deliroll. A certain family had given us a regifted slice of deliroll which we did not find out until later. They would not eat it themselves.

I full up individual large boxes with my kids' MMs. After a couple of days they are no longer so interested in their nosh. I salvage juice boxes and anything else I would purchase. The rest goes out the door.

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 5:43 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

Food can taste and smell fine and still give you food poisoning. Food left between 40-140 degrees F more than two hours should be discarded. I am not usually home when MM are delivered - I am out with my family delivering ours - and would have no idea when the food was dropped off, or how well it was handled previously. Fortunately, it is extremely rare in my community for people to give perishables.

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 6:08 am

About the amount of junk, we leave a few little things for my daughter and then my husband takes the rest of the garbage to work and puts it near the coffee and water cooler at him office. I will do the same this year. I work at a midrasha so im sure the girls will take some of the candies and stuff.
We keep only things that are not junk and home made things, thats it.

Also, one of us, either myself or my husband stays home and the other one goes with our daughter, so that we know when the food is brought and nothing is left out. Thats how I grew up as well. Someone was always home to receive things.

nyer1

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 6:53 am

I decided this year for purim that im giving out VERY simple MM. not trying to be cheap, just economical and trying not to contribute to the nosh that some ppl in our community just DON'T NEED. im doing homemade hamantaschen and rugelach with a bar of chocolate in our small bags... I did 20 of those. the bars were 1 dollar, the bags were 29 cents. and then for bigger bags which were 49 cents each, homemade goodies, the chocolate bar and grape juice. proud to say I think we spend only 100, whereas last year I think it came out closer to 200. its just all so unnecessary

ra_mom

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 6:54 am

I think it's awful that people repackage homemade food squishy.
Guess it's a good thing we basically only get mm from family and neighbors, and I know where the food is coming from (you can see that each family us giving you one if many identical mm- all made by the same person)

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 7:38 am

nyer1 wrote:

same here. We bake cookies and put two or three in each bag, an orange or apple and then for my daughter's little friends, we may add a taffy or wafer to make it "special" for her friends, but thats it. in my book, SIMPLE IS BEST!!!!!

Liba

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 7:45 am

I am trying to convince myself that buying bagels instead of boiling/baking them is just as good. I generally give out a bagel, cream cheese, and a bag of chocolate milk. Home made it feels like something special, but buying the bagels... I am not sure.

smss

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 8:21 am

Liba wrote:

I think a bought bagel is a really good shalach manos. who doesn't like that?

gold21

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 11:05 am

Aww
You guys take all the fun out of shalach manos
Now you're making me think - what CAN I send for shalach manos that will actually be appreciated and not put in the bag for the cleaning lady or into the garbage???
I love homemade shalach manos....
Some of you seem so clinical in the way you deal with shalach manos... Like hello, someone put hours of thought and effort into it, don't be so cut and dry about how u dispose of it....

syrima

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 11:33 am

gold21 wrote:

Yeah, a long time ago we got about 10 mm, and it was fun and I appreciated each one...
Now we get over 50 each year NOT counting the kids "pekelach", and it ain't so fun anymore...

spinkles

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 12:48 pm

Quote:

Some of you seem so clinical in the way you deal with shalach manos... Like hello, someone put hours of thought and effort into it, don't be so cut and dry about how u dispose of it....

People who "put hours of thought and effort" into their MM are doing it for themselves more than for the recipients. They're the type who have fun doing it. They think their theme is amazing and their poem is so creative and yes they might be hurt if they realized that I rarely read the poems and if they saw how quickly some of their stuff ends up in the trash...but they're not inside my house watching, so why does it matter? Confused

The reality is that their MM are there amid a sea of other people's MM that are all sitting there needing to be dealt with and Purim is hectic and we're not standing there gazing in admiration at their particular MM's little extra touches. We love that they thought of us. We love the achdus and message of "we care about you." That's what's important.

ElTam

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 1:36 pm

Nosh: Put aside and use for treats for Shabbos party or rewards for helping to clean for Pesach or other special treats.

Food poisoning: Most people are misinformed about food poisoning and what your risks are. If something has e coli in it, keeping it below 40 degrees isn't going to help. e Coli will still multiply (although multiplication is slower) even in the refrigerator. And any e coli on the food won't die, even in the fridge. The freezer will kill it, but the fridge won't. Most cases of e coli have come from bagged vegetables. The refrigeration offers no protection. Listeria is also pretty much impervious to cold and is commonly found in deli meats and hot dogs. And even freezing doesn't kill salmonella. So a little time out of the fridge isn't going to up your food poisoning risk entirely. If you are worried about food poisoning, restaurants are a bigger danger than MM. Best bet, stop eating entirely. Very Happy

If it makes you feel better, shellfish are one of the biggest dangers for food poisoning, so we're good on that!

Kashrus:
Maybe you could put out a sign that says: "We don't probably don't trust your kashrus, so don't leave us any MM." Probably not in the spirit of the day though.

We put little stuff near the front of the fridge for snacks or filling out a meal for the few days after Purim. Or, I you are the only Jew in your office, take stuff and leave it in the break room with a "take me" sign on it.

spring13

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 2:13 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

.
Also, one of us, either myself or my husband stays home and the other one goes with our daughter, so that we know when the food is brought and nothing is left out. Thats how I grew up as well. Someone was always home to receive things.

Yup, this. I'm surprised how many people seem to be saying that they spend all day out of the house with no one else there.

amother

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 2:23 pm

we give out deli sandwiches (and soda/pickles/cole slaw etc) on Purim and have always gotten such great feedback about it but now all your posts are making me think twice. Yes, we only give enough for 1-2 people and are always told either a parent was starving and ate it some time during the day or took it to work with them the next day for lunch. . . People often say to me before Purim "please tell me you're sending the deli sandwiches again. . . "

Now I'm wondering if everyone is really lying and being polite? Are they all throwing out the (expensive) sandwiches? Why are they telling me they like it then? Why don't they just say nothing?

As an aside, I don't think we've ever left it at a door (always handed it to a person) so there's not much chance of food poisoning but this thread is really making me think that maybe we should just do a cheapo non perishable nosh mm instead?

Thoughts?

ElTam

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 2:26 pm

Quote:

I get a MM like this every year from a friend. I eat it in the afternoon that day to keep my energy up before the seuda. Never gone in the trash ever. In fact, I rush in and eat it right away so DH won't ask to share it! Very Happy

amother

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 2:29 pm

amother wrote:

It depends on your kitchen and on your crowd. The kashrus issue is not anything which I have flexibility on.

busydev

Mon, Feb 11 2013, 2:45 pm

amother wrote:

I have a friend that has done this for years. She does not drop any off- only hands it to people that come to her. and it usually is a life saver during the delivering before the seuda.