Where I used to pick up food for the meals-on-wheels delivery also had a give-away table, but they put a restriction on it - 1 item per person. Then over the weekend it would sit there and Monday the table would be laden with spoiled food - so what were they saving?
Where I now pick up the meals-on-wheels, there's no restriction, but I've received more than a few stink-eyes when I walk out with an armload of give-away food. However, I figure that if anyone wanted it, it would have been taken by the time I got there.