And thus are dumpster divers made

[kimberkit]

One of those things I hate is the waste of good food. Apparently, as I learned when walking a woman over to Balducci's in the rain (her umbrella died and she was old and limping, so I slowed down and walked with her there, and she was all ranty about this) -- Balducci's throws out all of its food at the end of the night -- it doesn't donate it to shelters, or bring it to the firehouse half a block away. Environmentally and just because it grates on something in my psychology, this horrifies me. One of the sad things at the food tasting tonight was the fact that some of those taste-gasmic, intense, beautifully presented chocolates were thrown out.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but clearly, we need more pressure on people to do better. It comforts me that there are people like simonbillenness who put pressure on companies to hire ethically, to not use sweatshop workers, etc. -- but the smaller wastes, the little outrages... no one talks about those.

I wonder if I could eat all of that food.

I am a dumpster-diver in the making.

Comments

[osirusbrisbane.livejournal.com]

I am also very very bothered when people throw away perfectly good food. I don't think I could do the dumpster-diving thing, but I can't bear to be at a restaurant and watch friends eat only half their meal and try to throw the rest away. I don't understand why everyone wouldn't want tasty leftovers.

[sir-graeme.livejournal.com]

I read an article once about the day-to-day activities of freegans, and was quite surprised -- and unpleasantly shocked -- at how well they were able to live primarily off of discarded food, almost always sacrificing very little in food quality.

When I was at Williams, I made deliveries for WRAPS, the student organization that delivered uneaten food from dining halls to group homes and community centers (usually in North Adams) that could serve it to their clients. They were always very happy to receive the food. And I had to think about all the surplus food from dining halls that was never shuttled through the program, and thus simply thrown away...

[simonbillenness.livejournal.com]

I'm very flattered that you think so highly of me. By the way, did you know that you are consistently spelling my LJ username wrong? (You miss out one of the "n"s in my last name.)

[kimberkit.livejournal.com]

Whoops... will fix that.