Freegans?

[Pam]

I have put things out via Craigslist for a "curb alert." If there is anything I hate it is throwing something out that might get crunched in the trash truck that might be useful to someone. A couple of months ago I dug up a bunch of hostas and day lily and iris bulbs in order to thin out my flowerbeds. I did a Craigslist "curb alert" and they were gone within the hour. It is truly a shame about the food we waste each and every day while many go hungry. I am glad some people are able to make use of it.

[cassiesmom]

My sister and her family live in a town with lots of very wealthy families. Trash day is Monday, so the buckets go out to the curbs on Sunday night. In the summer, you'll see vehicles cruising the neighborhood looking for good "finds" put out on the curb by these wealthy families. It's sad.

[Catlady711]

Two comments here...

1) The Freecycle does have local chapters all over the US, someone would have to do a search for the towns nearby them to see if there's a local chapter for that area.

2) I'm not poor (not rich either) but I am a scavenger by nature, I could just be a pack rat though. I'm always checking out between the washers/dryers at the laundromat for dropped quarters also under monkey bars at the playground, and will stop to pry a single penny loose from the pavement during an ice storm.

I can't ever imagine myself scavenging food but I have been known to pick up items occassionally from the curbs. I once needed one of those old fashioned metal tubs for my firepit ashes but boy those things are hard to find and expensive. One day while riding my bike around town I found a HUGE pile of junk at the curb, sorta looked like someone was moving out. In that pile was a perfectly good tub just like I was looking for! No holes, no rust, handles still in great shape, clean even, the only flaw was that it had one small dent on it. I snapped that puppy up and rode it home on my bike. I sure musta been a sight riding with that big thing. LOL Hubby once found a slighly stained but perfectly useable small coleman cooler just the perfect size for our fishing worms.

[sirrahved]

Freegans and freecyclers are completely different. Freecyclers offer things to other people that they no longer need, and look to see if things they need are offered on the list before they buy.

Freegans (spoof on the word vegans) are people who try to eat everything, or almost everything, for free. They scour dumpsters of restaurants, grocery stores, etc, for thrown out food. There is a REASON this food is thrown out. The FDA has rules on how long produce and leftovers can be kept. This is to prevent people from getting sick! This idea completely icks me out. I'm not just talking about homeless people who have no other option. It's a "green" movement.

[moosmom]

Bev,

The thing about dumpster diving for food totally icks me out too. I can't even imagine not being able to find or afford food.

But the other finds, such as stuff people no longer want is a cool thing. I found lots of stuff I was able to use before I was able to buy some better stuff.

[columbine]

America's Second Harvest is an organization dedicated to minimizing food waste through "food rescue" - picking up food that stores won't sell because it's perfectly fine to eat but isn't A1 quality (bruised apples, day-old bread, wilted cabbage, cans with the labels stuck on upside down) and bringing it to food pantries and shelters where what needs to be cooked will be cooked immediately and the rest given to people whose appetites are guided more by need than by appearances.

A certain... oh, what the heck, Bread and Circus near where I used to live used to have plenty of scavengers nightly, picking up hotdog rolls, bok choy, broccoli starting to flower yellow - until they installed an enclosed dumpster with a CONVEYOR BELT into it (anybody ever read The Grapes of Wrath?) to make sure that the food would be wasted rather than attract Those People. I was walking past it one day with my friend Susan, who remarked on the graffiti someone had painted on the dumpster, yellow with purple dots: WASTE NOT, WANT NOT. "Do you like that graffiti?" asked Susan. "Yeah," I said. "I painted it," she said. I bought her a beer.

Hunger isn't far away. It's not just the homeless. It's largely kids from working families who look pretty much like your kids, except maybe they're having trouble keeping their eyes open in class. Someone in the family needed medicine, got hurt & lost their job, couldn't get to work without repairing the car. I bet there are folks here who've been hungry.

Love, Columbine

[Lizzie]

You are right, Columbine, you eat what you can when you are starving. I found myself totally penniless while living in Greece in my early twenties. Slowly, the pasta was used up and I didn't eat for three days. Starving is painful, especially when you are 22 and your metabolism is high. I couldn't dumpster dive in a country where food safety laws were non-existent (it was 1970) and it was hot. I asked for old bread at a bakery but they said they always threw it to the birds. I survived on the crusts of bread and honey left over by the child I had just started giving English lessons to. Boy, they tasted good and they prevented me passing out completely on the street. At night, I drank lots of water to fill my stomach briefly so that I might sleep. Fortunately, Pia told her parents what I was doing and they simply started inviting me to have lunch with them. I still remember that first lunch, okra stewed with tomatoes and olives - divine!

I believe stores throw out food that is past it's sell-by date. That means it's good to eat for a week or more after that. I often eat cheese that is weeks past its sell-by date. I would have a problem using vegetables that had been thrown in the trash, but I shouldn't since those same vegetables could have been mis-handled on their way to the store in the first place.