Question: Food left from the cafeteria at the end of the daily serving period is donated to the homeless shelter. The food would be thrown away, and we don't capture full value when reporting. Can we count the cost of food served at community meetings like tours, cancer support, homeless shelter board, etc.
Recommendation: We recommend that the cost of packing and transporting the left over cafeteria food (but not the cost of the food) can be counted under Category E3. In-Kind Contribution.
The cost of food provided as part of a community benefit activity should be considered an expense for that community benefit activity. Be sure that the activity meets the criteria for being a community benefit (addresses a community need and a community benefit objective). Tours are not a community benefit, and, therefore, the cost of food served in conjunction with tours should not be counted as community benefit.