Looks like a lot of effort went into this post. Very thorough. I like that you highlighted several things that aren't normally discussed. Most people just want to make it a simple one dimensional issue.

Definitely a ton of good food is thrown out or wasted. I have heard of food banks not taking donations because they were past the best by date or not inspected by the state or something.

One example I can think of from my own life was a dumpster one of my co-workers had me stop at one day while I was driving him home. Apparently he knew the day of the week this store would throw out after best by date food. I won't say the chain store it was behind.

It was unlocked and filled with all manner of food. I only grabbed some high quality chocolate and some yogurt. My co-worker grabbed all sorts of frozen food like pizza and microwave dinners. There was even crackers and cookies and cereal in there. We barely dented it. I imagine some homeless people probably were able to eat out of this dumpster.

Unfortunately I checked it a couple months later one day when I was going by it and it was locked up. All that free food no longer available....