[tbw2]

Beggars can’t be choosers.
Does this mean those who discarded food weren’t really that needy after all?

[AnAmericanMother]

Not necessarily. It means they didn't know what to do with what they had been given.

Sort of like the Irish peasants during the Famine who were given maize (what we call corn) and had no idea how to cook it or eat it. Called it "Peel's Brimstone" after Lord Robert Peel (PM at the time).