Posted on 04/22/2015 5:13:39 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Some students say they are swapping supermarket shelves for backstreet bins, so that they can save money
It’s midnight, I have a torch and I’m sifting through the bins behind my local Tesco in search of food. The idea of picking through discarded packets of cakes and cheese in a pair of marigolds may seem pretty disgusting. But for a small section of society, standing in bins at night – or freeganism, as it is more widely known – has become a way of life.
Freegans avoid buying anything as much as possible in order to boycott the economic system and be eco-friendly. For many young freegans, this can mean asking supermarkets for their discarded food, which is often left in bins.
“It’s not unusual to find around £100 worth of food on any given night,” says Finn Weddle, who was a freegan while at university in Edinburgh. “But the lifestyle doesn’t suit everyone – you have to be happy to eat food from bins and ask strangers in cafes for their leftovers.”
But it’s not just about going through bins. Freegans reclaim anything that has been discarded, from food to furniture, in an attempt to limit their consumption. “People are always leaving their unwanted stuff out on the street,” says Katendi Heald, a student living in London. “I’ve been able to furnish my student house with beautiful tables, plates, a toaster and movie posters that I’ve found.”
SNIP
Freeganism isn’t just for student activists, though. It’s also for those looking to save money. As students, we tend to be perpetually broke – I have occasionally skipped meals because tickets to an amazing DJ set tend to prove more seductive than my staple mushroom pasta. Adopting a freegan lifestyle can go a long way towards stretching out your student loan.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I got a source. As soon as something hits the sell by date, I get some good stuff.
:p
No digging in the trash is involved.
Looks like the raccoons need to unionize and put a stop to these scabs.
They’ll all get sick eventually. Just a matter of not so much time.
Working as a night stocker at Wal-Mart, I used to get sick when I saw the bakers throwing out racks of day-old bread.
The problem was, as I found out as a volunteer at the Salvation Army, they had to trash past-date foods, or risk being sued by people who had time on their hands and smelled a buck.
My wife told me that the Senior Center used to get day-old pastries from Kroger - until some old biddy found a bit of mold on a piece of pie, and rather than just toss it out, complained to Kroger. They immediately stopped the freebies.
Exactly, my store near me will pile different meats at a refrigerated corner marked at a very low price. The meat is still good just because they take it out to sell on the same day as the Sell By Date. For example: I was short in money one time, I love to make Beef Soup. The butcher came out and laid out in a small corner a pile of meat that said SALE. I looked it was my Short Rib Beef. They are expensive to buy but I saw being sold for at least 3 bucks when normally at least 4 ribs are like 13 bucks. So yes, I agree no need to go digging thru bins. One just need to be aware when the butcher brings out the cheap meat.
-— Adopting a freegan lifestyle can go a long way towards stretching out your student loan. -—
It’s the American dream under Obamunism. What a glorious vision.
Charles Manson’s women did the same thing in the 1960’s.
Parasites.
The idea of picking through discarded packets of cakes and cheese in a pair of marigolds....
***
Marigolds? Must be some sort of British slang.
I guess these people don’t mind taking home food that may have cockroaches in it. Gross!
Cockroaches are a major source of protein.
I used to pride myself with my feats of thrift. Coupons, rain checks, sales, triple coupons, and the manager’s special meat, produce, and dairy items. Sadly the local grocer where I live now is not offering the discounted items before they go past their expiration date... but after. 10 boxes of Shur Fine brand macaroni and cheese that is 2 weeks past the date stamp for $1 is OK... I mean does dried pasta and sealed powdered cheese instantly go bad by the date they stamp.kn the box? No. But the moldy vegetables have no business being discounted 50%. The sausage meat that expired yesterday and normally sells for $2.99/# is not worth it at $1.99/#. I did bring home one of those 32oz. tubs of plain yogurt that was past it’s sell by date... but does refrigerated yogurt really go bad? Hell even if it wasn’t refrigerated, it would just be like yogurt or kefir.
Still... the store shouldn’t be selling the perishibles past their sell by date.
What we get is free. Usually it is stuff like cupcakes and donuts they can no longer sell, but often it is canned goods with dents, dry goods or frozen food that probably last well beyond the sell by date.
We got a case of those Frosted Flake single serve bowls a week ago! 100% preservatives, pull top and add milk and eat.
We still got a bag of instant mashed potatoes, some wheat spaghetti noodles and several huge bags of frozen french fries. We also got 7 dozen eggs last time.
Sometimes there isn’t much to get.
Drudge has a story up about how FDA has an app to help people eat out-of-date foods too.
I have to say if you do this on a nightly basis, you might just be very surprised what stores legally have to throw away! The big caveat is the meats, store now routinely soak them in bleach to discourage ‘freegans’ or anyone else from scavenging them.
I look at these folks on sort of a Biblical note. Waste not, want not. Do not deter the poor or widowed from scavenging the fields after the harvest. If the poor, hard up students, etc. want to work to scavenge the discards for a days food...don’t curse them, bless them.
... Ruth wished to do something to help support herself and her mother-in-law, so she begged Naomi to let her go into the fields and glean after the reapers”
They were to be left for the poor to glean. Similar laws were given regarding vineyards and oliveyards
Leviticus 19:10 You shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor
Deuteronomy 24:21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow.
Our modern world really no longer has fields for the poor to glean ...we have dumpsters.
So ...I cannot condemn the poor ‘freegans,’ only the one’s gleaning when they could actually pay...for the Bible does condemn them!
In fact, the UN and Moo highly recommend that the unwashed masses eat insects as a major source of protein.... I, however, will leave my share of insects to Moo and her gay Earth Day crowd.
Not really, as stated above, stores are obligated to throw out dated food stuffs even tho such stuff is perfectly good to consume.........
yep. “Sell by” and “eat by” are different dates
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