Meadow Muffin
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."
Once a hippie, always a hippie.
If I ate waste, I'd maybe never want to eat again. These people need to join the Peace Corps or do something really meaningful...
Odds are, they are not taking the stuff already unpackaged. A lot of restaurants and grocery stores toss unopened items because they've exceeded the sell-by date. The items are perfectly good, just a little old.
Didn't I read on another thread one time that these fools are referred to as Freegans?
"Squatters believe that real human needs are more important than abstract notions of private property, and that those who hold deed to buildings but won’t allow people to live in them, even in places where housing is vitally needed, don’t deserve to own those buildings."
ORLY? Since when do we stamp our widdle feet and have a tantrum, "that's not fair!"
Meadow Muffin
My first thought, too.
Spel chekur wurks I need a grammr chekur tu.
Dooh
Just goes to show you - You can buy an education, but you can't buy intelligence.
You should have eaten him. Why let a perfectly good lawyer go to waste...
ROTFL!
"We quit when we found out extended families living at the same address were getting 3-4 turkeys and selling them."
I guess you're familiar with the thread on FR about the church that gave a home to some Katrina refugees only to find out that they re-sold the home? When confronted, the refugees response was essentially, you gave it to us, so what if we sold it?
In this area, many churches have learned the hard way not to give any thing that can be resold to the 'needy'. I know of one church that will rent a motel room, buy gasoline, food, etc for the needy but they pay the motel directly with instructions that if the needy check out any refund goes to the church. They will buy a limited amount of gas but the church pumps and pays. They will buy meals but the meals must be consumed on the spot. Once burned...
CA Professionals Dine Out Of Dumpsters ^
DEMOCRATS!
Were I one of these businesses, I'd lock my dumpster.
So, if the biscuit they already made (or the dough already prepared) isn't put on your plate it isn't being wasted? I'd think the restaurant knows that on Tuesday they need x number of biscuits so that is what they make.
I guess if they start giving away extra biscuits at the end of the night, you've made a difference. The only food place I've worked at insisted on all leftover food being thrown away. They didn't want the cooks and employees cooking extra in order to eat it later.
;o)
yeah---the Charles Manson girls used to go dumpster diving for all their food too.
Interesting - the paper list them as "proffesionals" but reading the web site, most are voluntarily unemployed.
Its probally nothing more than a bunch of freeloaders, who found a way to make it seem cool and hip by giving it a title and purpose.
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