Every day the Lithuanian Food Bank receives several tonnes of fruit, vegetables, bread and other products from shops, food warehouses and farmers, which are then transferred to social services organisations and low-income families. Some of these food products are not in good enough condition to be passed onto users – ripe, soft fruit is not suitable for further transportation as they may be damaged and unfit for consumption, bread products are stale, vegetables are wilted or no longer look good enough to be distributed. There is a risk that end users will thus not use the products and they will perish, so at best they are allocated for animal fodder.
The Food Bank has its own food processing facility, where with the help of a chef, a team of volunteers processes 100-250 kg of fruit and vegetables daily, making them into soups, stews, jams, seasoning and sauces.
It would better, however, to dry some of the fruit and vegetables rather than cooking or preserving them. It is not possible to dry food at the Food Bank food processing facility and we do not have sufficient funds to buy drying equipment. The most efficient and economical solution would be to purchase an affordable industrial 1500W 24-tray dryer YunlinLi ST-00 capable of drying food at 40-90°C.
We very much hope that with the generosity of donors, the Food Bank will soon be able to dry many kilograms of valuable fruit, vegetables and other products which can then be used by those in need.