How Charities Handle Odd Donations

Charities rely on the goodness of people’s hearts, but given the bizarre donations they sometimes receive, they have to wonder what’s going on in some people’s heads, reports The Austin American-Statesman.

For instance, someone once donated a pallet of purple stockings to the Capitol Area Food Bank in Austin, which decided to use them to keep loose onions together. With similar creativity, Project Transitions, which helps people with AIDS, once filled 100 right-foot-only boots with flowers and used them as table centerpieces for a fund-raising event.

Other groups aren’t sure what to make of their gifts. The article reports that local children’s shelters have received boxes of caffeine pills, not exactly part of a nutritious diet, and a gigantic gorilla mannequin that had to be removed because it made children cry.

And the dump truck of manure the food bank received? Perfect fertilizer.