Grocery store food goes to waste all the time, they pay for insurance and when the stuff goes bad they get insurance money for it. I guarantee if the ex store owner just opened up the doors a day ahead of time and said it was all free he would be in court later in the month after somebody got a stomache ache from bad food and sued him. Why would the banks want to have legal issues over food that could be expired and tainted, that legaly they don't even own (just the building not the contents) by giving it out?

My old neighbor (now deceased) used to haul food around to needy people that grocery stores donated to his church. He would have all kinds of bread and sweets (store made) to hand out, and some canned goods that were at the expiration date but nothing else.