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The Pineapple and the Playbook
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It was agreed that every week the church people would bring roughly 4 bags of groceries– food that was certainly welcome at first. It may not have been the greatest food, but that is not really an issue when you're hungry. Then the food pantry– And I will not use any names–started bringing food that had clearly expired– Some of the expiration dates were from several months ago. In the meantime– I ate some of the food without expiration dates and got violently ill– Possibly some kind of food poisoning. I really didn't know what to do, the church people were certainly well-intentioned, but you know what they say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions. I mean this was stuff that had the potential of giving food poisoning to unsuspecting people!
Then it became more and more obvious when they brought more and more food that had passed the expiration date. Naturally I would have to go through all the food and check those dates– Throwing away the spoiled food– And eventually throwing away food that did not have any date on it, because I just didn't know. I was torn regarding what to do, but thought at least I was providing somewhat of a service by getting rid of food that was harmful. But as time went on, the separation process of spoiled food from food that could be eaten took longer and longer as more and more of the food that was being distributed had passed its expiration date.
Then one day about a month ago they brought four bags of food, and one of the church people pointed to a large pineapple that they had brought. He began speaking to me like I was a five year-old in front of the Christmas tree and said–look we have a pineapple for you! I felt like saying, I am 75 years old, and what am I going to do with a friggin pineapple!– Except the word I was thinking of wasn't exactly friggin–I picked up the pineapple and carried it to the kitchen with the other food, and began looking through the food that had been brought for items that had clearly expired. And this time three out of four bags had food that was clearly expired or had no expiration date on it– three bags of food that I would be very scared to eat.
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