Posted on 02/01/2009 5:26:12 PM PST by Libloather
For anyone who is hungry or eating poorly, I have a secret to share.
Here is some advice for those who are hungry:
My partner and I don't have enough money to eat well and neither do our friends. But we have a little secret I'd like to share with you--on one condition--you have to share the food you find with others and also use good judgment. This works best if you live in a suburb or a small city. (Those in NYC and LA might want to ignore this advice.) I live in a city of about a million people.
Find the area-wide warehouse distribution center for any of the national upscale grocery stores in your region. (I'd rather not name names, but I think you can figure out which ones I'm talking about). There will be an area where trucks are loading massive amounts of new food into the warehouse. Because these stores cater to upscale clientele, they will throw out pallets of food if some items have superficial packaging imperfections (i.e. dented but intact hard plastic, etc.) Because sales are low, they are also throwing out food that is 'less new' but perfectly edible. For example: if new produce arrives, unsold produce will be discarded en masse, even if it will stay good for another 10 days.)
Over the past few months, we have found boxes of whole wheat pizzas, boxes filled with organic frozen dinners (we took about 6 boxes containing 200+ dinners, left the rest), bananas, about 300 pounds of soy nuts, enough baby organic spinach to feed hundreds of people, cookie dough, dips and sauces of all sorts (hundreds of containers), hundreds of boxes filled with organic yogurt, expensive sparking water, pounds of nuts, organic baby mixed greens, etc. We feed many families with what we find.
Here are some tips:
1) Go after 10pm and before 3am.
2) Don't go to STORES themselves, they tend to throw garbage on top of their dumpsters and may even throw poisons on top to keep animals away. You're only likely to find a few busted yogurts with paper and coffee grinds thrown on top of them. Only hit the distribution centers.
3) You will be more successful at high-end stores with a picky clientele. At the regular store they can sell foods in dented packages at a discount. They won't do that at stores that have the aura of health and purity.
4) Use good judgment when dealing with unpackaged and unboxed food. Most of what I find is double and triple boxed food (food in plastic, in a box, in a larger box, inside a huge box all still sealed).
5) Use good judgment in dealing with expired foods. If it is straight out of deep freeze, we've found the "best if used by" dates to be pretty irrelevant. My entire community of friends has eaten on frozen food even 2 months past the "best if used by" date. If the crates of food are still hard-frozen, you're very likely to be AOK. Open one item and do a smell test. Throw away anything that doesn't pass your muster. Use common sense.
6) Always read up on massive recalls of a type of food. If the gov't is saying some tomatoes have salmonella, you might want to think twice about tomatoes.
7) Be careful with children, the elderly, and the immuno-compromised. Have the healthy people eat first as a precaution.
8) Wear comfortable shoes, protective clothing and bring a flashlight.
9) Be aware that your attempt to feed yourself may be trespassing or even illegal. Or it may not be a big deal. Our theory is that upscale 'holistic' stores are less likely to be brutal to foragers because it wouldn't be good advertising to refuse poor people your garbage (or advertise how much they waste.)
10) I'm personally most suspicious of dairy items. Toss anything that doesn't taste PERFECT. But don't worry, you'll find a hell of a lot of perfect tasting food.
11. Share.
If you're germ-o-phobic think of it this way: people touch your prepared foods at restaurants all the time.
Good luck. Please kick this if you think it will help someone.
That’s true, but even freezing it was too much chicken!
I suppose if we were starving I would do that.
I did make it one time with a pizza crust, left out the leak and added some Italian sausage. That was good also. Very strong flavors!
In most places, you aren’t trespassing if it isn’t posted, or you aren’t told to get off.
Also, it’s not illegal unless you’re caught.
Should you try it on them? Sure, but it would be a good idea for it not to be the ‘main’ dish. Go for it.
Interesting advice, and it’s a real shame that so much food is wasted.
The “please kick this” at the end tells me it might have been pulled from DU. FWIW.
Don't hold back.
;-)
Both of those statment are BS and you know it! If not, you had better git your property posted.
Last year they also kept the jumbos and sold them to a potato chip producer. Smaller sweet potato farmers harvest everything and sell them according to size and grade, from #1's to canners, which are the small or oddly shaped, that will be cut and canned. They can't afford the waste.
You are correct though ... if people only realized.
I found this out after asking if I could have it for my chickens.
Looking for a Job?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2136635/posts
*Note: The above link is a regularly updated thread.
There is not one single person in the United States too poor to eat well.
Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.
Food is a basic right for anybody who wants to earn it.
2 Thess 3:10
10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.
KJV
Note that it says "would not"; not CAN NOT.
Your first statement wouldn't hold water in any court. The second statement is so absurd, it's almost Clinton-esque.
Where I came from, they called that "coon hunting"!
A lot of the jobs have been small.
However, I will say this: From past experience, not everyone is to be trusted.
But, one man in particular, is the son of a deceased friend of ours. If we needed him in the middle of the night, he'd be here.
Besides the lack of work for people who are not slackers, we are hearing that these low interest rates have cut into the dividends of seniors. They are having a hard time stretching their money - and don't you think the government knows it ...
To go back even further, my parents used to tell stories from the Depression about *rent parties*. The people who needed rent money would make a huge pot of spaghetti, everyone who could would bring something and there was a jar for the rent. If you could put something in, you did. If you had nothing, you could still come and eat.
For those looking to stretch their money as far as possible, try Aldi’s. It looked to me like small canner lines. The expiration dates were all good, sometimes 18 months out for beets or potatoes. The paper goods are perhaps one step down from Sam’s Members Mark line, but as cheap as you’ll find...TP starting at about .40/roll, for example. Some items were the same as Walmart, others matched brand name sales in other stores in the area that week. Some were obviously good deal special purchases. Produce was so-so; price and quality is much better at one of the local grocery stores. But for canned goods and paper and cleaning aids like vinegar, it was as cheap and as good for the price as I have seen. No bags, a refundable quarter for the cart and, since I was told it was cash only, that’s what I did, but I saw some state subsidy cards being used. I will go back, now that I have an idea of their inventory and prices. I will also try and check out the specials when I have a chance. Mostly frozen dinner items, like pizza, but maybe 1/3 off the discount grocery stores. I think they are owned by the same people who own Trader Joe’s.
To go back even further, my parents used to tell stories from the Depression about *rent parties*. The people who needed rent money would make a huge pot of spaghetti, everyone who could would bring something and there was a jar for the rent. If you could put something in, you did. If you had nothing, you could still come and eat.
For those looking to stretch their money as far as possible, try Aldi’s. It looked to me like small canner lines. The expiration dates were all good, sometimes 18 months out for beets or potatoes. The paper goods are perhaps one step down from Sam’s Members Mark line, but as cheap as you’ll find...TP starting at about .40/roll, for example. Some items were the same as Walmart, others matched brand name sales in other stores in the area that week. Some were obviously good deal special purchases. Produce was so-so; price and quality is much better at one of the local grocery stores. But for canned goods and paper and cleaning aids like vinegar, it was as cheap and as good for the price as I have seen. No bags, a refundable quarter for the cart and, since I was told it was cash only, that’s what I did, but I saw some state subsidy cards being used. I will go back, now that I have an idea of their inventory and prices. I will also try and check out the specials when I have a chance. Mostly frozen dinner items, like pizza, but maybe 1/3 off the discount grocery stores. I think they are owned by the same people who own Trader Joe’s.
Sorry for the double. Hiccups,
Dad taught us how to garden, even using the alley for growing okra. He taught us how to call up quail and shoot them with a .22.
I remember my Grandmother churning butter in the kitchen at her house out in the piney woods of East Texas. We'd go get eggs from the chicken coop every day.
I try to instill these things in my kids (daughter 9, son 7). I want them to be indepentant as we were taught. My brothers and I are a generation from the past. I wish more were...
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