Our Intro to Peace & Conflict class visited the local food bank last week exposing an unsettling reality. My student diet of energy drinks and ramen was actually a luxury of nutrition. Providing a much richer diet compared to the meager options of local children and seniors. I wasn’t shocked, but seeing the disparity firsthand was a deeply humbling experience. Join me as I embark on a revised journey. By looking Beyond P&L Reports, we can explore the callous retail regulations and tax codes that influence corporate altruism. These systemic choices have the power to change the core memories of local children forever.
Drawing the Line on Theft
While working downtown at the Cumberland Martins, I had an insider’s view of the struggles. The store’s commitment to security was obvious: it maintained a dedicated police sub-station on-site. Once I was called in as a witness. Loss Prevention specialists spoke with responding officers about some children being detained. Not for valuable electronics, but for a stolen candy bar.
This is where the line must be drawn. I have no issue with the prosecution of organized food crime. Professional thieves structurally build their carts to run out of the building. They steal hundreds or thousands of dollars in merchandise. While that, too, is a symptom of systemic failure, it is a crime that warrants prosecution.
But the theft of necessity—hungry kids, or even gullible kids stealing high-markup, low-value foods—that is not a moral gray area. Charging someone for the theft of food is both morally and ethically indefensible. It reminds me of Disney’s Aladdin, yet it happens here. Morally, it elevates our status above the hungry, dehumanizing them in their desperation. When one side of town can afford ten times the food as their immediate neighbors, there is a fundamental issue. The local economic system is at fault.
Institutionalized Waste: The Tax Code Problem (Past and Present)
No one should go hungry anywhere, but it’s happening here, and it’s happening because it’s profitable. I noticed a disturbing trend that institutionalized this waste, which has only recently begun to change. In the period I wrote this (2010), the tax system treated food donation as too complex. It was considered risky for many businesses. Often incentivizing its destruction as a “known loss” over costly donation programs.
This was the result of an anal-retentive accounting issue. Letting numbers in the wrong column of a Profit and Loss report dictate human survival. The nature of food waste and its societal demand didn’t change; just its preferred location on a spreadsheet. While the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act protected donors from liability. The best enhanced tax deduction was often unavailable to smaller businesses. Mid-sized businesses also faced this challenge. The path of least resistance was classifying perfectly edible food as a “product loss” to be destroyed. Destroying it was financially simpler than donation. It was administratively simpler too.
Today, the landscape is better. Companies like Walmart, Martins, and Sheetz now consistently work with food banks. This is thanks in part to federal tax law changes in 2015. Those changes made enhanced deductions permanent for all business types. Yet, my core critique remains: it took a change in profitability to unlock this altruism. The system still prioritizes money over human life. It just now happens to be profitable to do the right thing.
The Vital Bridge: Closing the Waste Loop
The food bank serves as more than a charity. It functions as a critical system stabilizer. Many residents rely on SNAP benefits, yet those funds rarely cover a full month of nutritious meals. High inflation and rising costs create significant challenges for the most vulnerable. Our seniors and children often face a “caloric gap” that federal assistance can’t remove on its own.
This is where the food bank intervenes. It acts as the final link in the supply chain, capturing high-quality food that would otherwise enter a landfill. Diverting “short-code” items from retailers like Walmart and Sheetz, the food bank transforms potential environmental waste into essential community nutrition. It turns a systemic failure of overproduction into a literal lifeline.
Without this intervention, the gap between SNAP assistance and actual survival would be insurmountable for thousands of our neighbors.
Beyond the Ledger: The Human Heart of the Food Bank
Statistics and tax codes often obscure the real human impact of hunger. During my visit, a story emerged that has stayed with me for the last 16 years. It involved an older woman, a regular at the food bank, who struggled with low income and diabetes. On one occasion, while selecting items, she reached for a small cake.
Recognizing her health needs, the staff initially intervened. They gently explained that they couldn’t, in good conscience, give her something so detrimental to her condition. Her response was heart-wrenching. She explained that the cake wasn’t for her; it was for her grandson’s birthday. She simply couldn’t afford to buy him a gift or bake a cake herself.
The staff relented, and she left with that cake. To a detached observer, this looks like a simple handout or landfill diversion. To an accountant, its a mere tax write-off. But to that child, that cake became a core memory. It represented a moment of kindness, generosity, and thoughtfulness that will last a lifetime. This is the true power of the food bank. It doesn’t just give life sustaining calories; it protects the dignity of our community’s most vulnerable moments.
The Myth of the $1,500 Start
The entire economic model is built on the arrogance of capitalism. Success is judged by how much you can accumulate over others. The entire concept is based on a lie: that everyone starts equally.
In the game of Monopoly, every player starts with a clear advantage: $1,500 in cash. In life, there is no such starting bonus for 95% of people. You start with the sweat off your back and with hope. It is a noble path for the commoner. This keeps the American dream alive, one struggling worker at a time. Meanwhile, others are born into their wealth, never having to worry. This reality of poverty is so foreign to them that they don’t even believe it can occur here.
We have the technology and the money to end both poverty and hunger yesterday, today—even tomorrow—but we don’t. The argument is always that it’s not “profitable” or “economically possible” to do so. This is a lie used to preserve the status quo. I argue that eliminating poverty and hunger from this world would lead to boundless human ingenuity. This applies both economically and philosophically.
That is the key. Sometimes, business-minded people must be encouraged into altruism. They need the promise of a greater, long-term return on humanity.
2026 Update: The Reality on the Ground
While the corporate landscape has shifted toward better donation practices, the financial pressure on our neighbors has only intensified.
- The ALICE Reality: In Allegany County,MD 52% of households now fall below the ALICE threshold (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). This means over half our community can’t afford a basic “survival budget.”
- Cumberland Focus: The poverty rate in Cumberland is roughly 23.5%—more than double the Maryland state average.
- Childhood Hunger: Approximately 28% of children in Cumberland live in poverty. Nearly 68% of students in the county rely on free or reduced-price meal programs.
- The Funding Gap: Our county faces an estimated annual food budget shortfall of over $6.4 million.
How to Help: Western Maryland Food Bank
If you want to move beyond the philosophical discussion and take action, visit or support the Western Maryland Food Bank. It remains the central hub for fighting hunger in our region.
They coordinate with local retailers to guarantee “product loss” becomes a community gain.
They accept both monetary donations and non-perishable food items.
Note: Portions of this article were originally written in April 2010. Statistics regarding local poverty and food bank partnerships have been updated to reflect current 2026 data for Allegany County and the City of Cumberland.
