Food donations can be useful if they have nutritional value & are a shortage good. But they require time and effort to process. if they’re expired they have to be discarded. If they’re not in shortage at the point of donation, they have to be transported to where they’re needed.
Cash donations don’t have those issues.
I couldn’t say why they still do can drives. Perhaps as a PR exercise, or perhaps when there’s a big can drive going on, there are enough hands to help with the intake and sorting, so it makes more financial sense. Or maybe it just prompts someone to say “cash is better, I’ll just do that”. But that’s just me guessing, really.
