pastas? I have found organic or just product of USA pasta. Also, dried beans. Bob's Red Mill and Arrowhead Mills have many USA products and are receptive to answering emails honestly (when I emailed last year). Does your food pantry get fresh from farmers markets or anything*? If so they could use single ingredients to create their own soups and chilies. Basics like sugar and flour? Spices? Tuna? Canned ham and other meats?
You could donate smoked hocks and dried lima beans. Canned ham and split peas. Pasta and canned tomatoes, etc, Tuna, mayo, bread, pickles, chips. Ask if they will accept fresh for same day cooking and you could donate salad ingredients. Also think in terms of pasta salads, lasagna, pot pies. Root veggies have some shelf life, so potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets. Cabbage veggies also last in cool storage for a bit. My kitchen is cool, so I have a couple of bags off in the dark corner with root veggies until the fridge empties a bit and that includes a couple heads of cabbage, lol!~ Think like you're shopping long term for yourself and try to stick with product of USA and single ingredient items that go together. Don't forget the boxed broths. Many of those look good by reading the panel and a couple grow their own veggies mostly.
*we donate our left overs from CSA distribution to a church that does meals and City Harvest gets donations from the farmer's markets and CSA's throughout the city. We give big boxes every Sat. so some folks are eating well at least once or twice a week
I'd love to taste it as I bet they do some good Southern cooking and such. They don't look sideways at a big box off collard greens, lol!~
