Posted on 12/01/2006 12:13:59 PM PST by Froufrou
Cynthia Powell and Stephen Vajda are unabashed Dumpster divers who get much of their weekly food from garbage cans.
The two educated Berkeley, Calif., professionals - who are not hungry or otherwise in need - say they are motivated by a growing conservation movement with a mantra that wasting resources, especially food, is shameful.
Powell and Vajda estimate they can save up to $100 a week by dining on day-old bread, vegetables and sometimes chocolate from commercial garbage cans.
The two estimated they know at least a half dozen like-minded people in Berkeley who regularly dine out - way out.
"I'm not hungry," said Powell. "I do it because it's good food, it's free and it's conservation."
Powell said she's been getting in Berkeley Dumpsters at grocery stores and bakeries ever since she moved to town about four years ago. She draws the line at eating meat or dairy products.
"I like to eat it because it's perfectly good food thrown away," said Powell. "It's a big waste. There are really amazing, perfectly good things like strawberries, onions, sweet potatoes, bananas, cantaloupes, watermelon and always good day-old breads."
Brian Mathews, a senior program manager at StopWaste.org, a voter-mandated special district that promotes "environmentally sound solid waste management and resource conservation" said businesses in Berkeley threw away 8.8 million pounds of food in 2000, the latest year for which numbers are available.
Mathews was shocked to hear that people committed to stopping waste would go as far as fishing food out of Dumpsters.
"This is totally new to me," said Mathews, who has a background in food science. "We advocate for reuse as a highest priority if the food is edible to reuse it through food banks or donations. I applaud their motivation for doing this, but I would caution them that they could be putting themselves in a situation where they could get contaminated or spoiled food. I think it's a little risky, Dumpster diving for dinner."
Vajda, on the other hand, said the risk of getting bad food is overblown.
"Some of the fear that's around presumably spoiled food, it's a little bit ridiculous. It's gotten out of hand," said Vajda, who sometimes retrieves eggs to eat. "There is so much food thrown away and there are so many starving people in the world, it's shameful to let it go to waste when it's just as easy for me to eat it. It's really disgusting when you have an apple (from a grocery store) with a blemish on it and people won't buy it."
Grocery stores, he said, "are the best sources and the worst offenders." Vajda said he does make a point of cooking most everything he pulls out of a Dumpster. And he has some friends who eat entirely out of Dumpsters.
"I wouldn't recommend that," said Vajda. "It's not an ideal diet."
Both Vajda and Powell said they never have been chased by the police, but they have been admonished by store owners.
Berkeley police spokesman Ed Galvan said the department has never arrested anyone for Dumpster diving.
"The biggest problem we have with people Dumpster diving is they make a mess," said Galvan. "But it's not a big issue."
I was a volunteer on the Bush-Cheney effort in Minnesota.
On Election Day, I was working out of the office, driving voters to the polls.
The campaign catered in a load of box lunches from Arby's. As the day went on, it became apparent that there was gonna be way too much food remainig.
A number of people grabbed extra lunches and took 'em home but there was still alot left. There was some discussion about donating them to a local soup kitchen or senior citizen dining center.
But then some lawyer warned us about the possible repercussions of doing this. As a result, a lot of good food was thrown out.
I was sorry to see that.
OK. The country is officially doomed.
Once again: the biggest problem with eradicating hunger is not money or avalability, but political hinderance. There's plenty of food; there's just too many people threatening violence on those who seek to distribute it.
Senior Seminar?
What is the point of that? It's not like there is a finite amount of biscuits in the world and by not eating them some poor kid in Africa will get to eat your biscuit.
I dont know of any store that likes to throw away produce that it paid for. They're probably required by law to throw food out after a certain period, or for other reasons.
If they were really motivated to do right by the environment, they would kill themselves.
(The hypocrites).
"You know, we do waste lots of food."
Nothing organic is ever "wasted". It just changes form and keeps on feeding something or other.
Supermarkets and many restaurants donate to food banks and shelters. The stuff they actually throw out could be dangerous to eat.
When my brother first married, he went to work for his new father-in-law who owned a resturant. Nothing fancy, kind of a Shoney's class resturant. My brother and his father-in-law were the only two that worked there who were authorized to place things in the dumpster. This policy went into effect after they found two hams, three turkeys, 20 pounds of hamburger, a couple of chickens, and a prime rib all wrapped in tin foil in the dumpster. Seems several of their employees were stealing food by placing it in the dumpster and picking it up after work. One wonders if these 'professionals' might have a deal working with the inside help where they do their dumpster shopping.
"Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms."
Josey Wales
I know I was on a rodeo committee and was not allowed to donate prepared BBQ to a shelter here [TX.] They want canned goods for The Food Bank, which we have a very extensive one for the country's 8th largest city.
I see people in our bldg have brought in boxes of stuff and pasta packs. I don't know what happens to that. They don't want perishables or any kind of penetrable packs. Homeless here know they can eat very well. I've even picked up tabs for one young black woman, alone but for a dog.
We used to donate to Good Samaritans for T-day meals. We quit when we found out extended families living at the same address were getting 3-4 turkeys and selling them.
The point is this:
Waste not, want not.
Why knowingly allow something to be put on your plate if you're not gonna eat it?
It's wasteful. Nothing more, nothing less.
"I don't mind biscuits but I can usually get full from the regular meal.
No sense in wasting food."
What?? No 'doggie' bags?
Conservation my ass...they're CHEAP.
Waste not, want not.
Not so.
I own a grocery store. It's not required by law to throw it away. It's all in the litigation. My insurance company would have a fit if they found out I was giving away out of date product.
I had a customer threaten to sue me for "getting sick" (wink, wink) on a container of yogurt that was one day out of date. I told her to stick it in her ear because I had the rest of the case and would be more than happy to have it tested. She left.
As it is, I divide all my out of date product among my employees. Being an independent, I can do that. The staff appreciates it, believe me.
Gee, guess what I do when I scoop dog poop off the sidewalk? Throw it in a dumpster. Maybe that ain't pate on that day old bread.
Extra protein, slightly digested.
blech is right. This is liberal religion -- making up things to do that make you FEEL good, doing penance for being in a wealthy nation, etc. It's just amazing to watch liberals in action, isn't it?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.