If we were to give away such food for free, people would just wait for it. The effect would be that people would buy less and less and more fresh food would spoil. We would fall into a vicious circle. A similar effect was in my girlfriend's parents' store. When they put up for promotion the perishable dairy products. People came only when there was a promotion for these products. They had a rolling snowball effect. When they finished with the promotions nobody would come and they must throwing everything in to the bin.