Food Banks: Helping the Needy Live Dignified Lives(b)|食物银行：守望生活的尊严

　　While in the US, Reverend Chen participated as a volunteer in church, community, and state-level food banks, gaining hands-on experience in how they operate and getting a glimpse of how tightly knit and deeply rooted the material relief system is in the US. Then a few years ago, when he found out that there were people in Taiwan whose lives were so hard that they stole food, the thought came to him to import the US approach to Taiwan.

　　In Taiwan, there are currently more than 20 organizations engaged in charitable food distribution services, not all of which call themselves food banks. Some are religious groups or their affiliates, while others are secular social welfare organizations. They share no uniform operating model. Some give out food coupons, and some collect donations with which they buy food for distribution. They all aim to reduce the burden that food expenditures place on households in need.

　　So where does Reverend Chen's group fit in? The TPFBA is a material bank, collecting mainly canned and packaged food for redistribution. It gets more than 90 percent of its food from donations, most of them products whose expiry dates are up within a few months. Chen says that although the TPFBA accepts cash donations, it does not use these to buy any of the kinds of products that are most routinely donated, such as rice, noodles, canned food, and crackers. He thinks the donated money should be reserved for things that no one brings in like crutches for the elderly, eyeglasses, diapers, and sanitary napkins. "The real spirit of a food bank is not to buy food, but to find food that would have otherwise gone to waste and then distribute it to those who need it," Chen explains.

 

　　在美国期间，陈坚智进入教会、社区以及州立的食物银行担任志工，亲自体验它们是如何运作的，并看到美国物资援助体系有多么的绵密而扎实。几年前，他发现台湾有人过得很艰苦因而去偷窃食物时，他的心里浮现了把这种美式作法引进台湾的想法。

　　目前全台湾有二十多个从事捐赠食物服务的组织，只是名称不一定都叫做食物银行。它们有些是宗教团体及其分支机构，而有些则是非宗教性质的社会福利机构。而各个组织运作的方式也不尽然相同。有的是发放食物券，有的则是募款购买食物来发送。而所有组织的目标都是要降低食物的花费给贫困家庭所带来的负担。

　　那么哪里比较适合陈坚智牧师的团体呢？台湾全民食物银行协会是一家物资的银行，它主要是募集罐头食品及包装食品后再重新发送出去。该协会有超过百分之九十的食物都是来自捐赠，而这些食物大部份都是几个月内就会到期的即期品。陈坚智牧师表示，虽然台湾全民食物银行协会接受捐款，但他们不会用这些钱来购买米、面、罐头食品和饼干等最常见的捐赠品。他认为这些捐款应该要留下来购买那些人们不捐的物品上，例如老人用的柺杖、老花眼镜、尿布及卫生棉等。陈坚智牧师解释道，『食物银行真正的精神并不是要购买食物，而是要找出那些原本要被浪费的食物，然后把它们分配给那些需要帮助的人。』