Food liberation (Dumpster Diving)

[AMGS3]

IMO it's mainly a kneejerk disgust thing rather than rational consideration.
...
The best advise I've heard on DD is "don't eat it if you can't tell why they threw it out."

It may be kneejerk disgust but I think that it is also rational to let people know and consider where the donations you are giving them came from.

I agree that knowing why they are getting rid of it may be helpful in determining whether it's safe to eat or not, but some of the most excellent 'finds' DDs get are from overstock, which overstock products might look exactly like recalled products in a dumpster. And they will probably look exactly like the product that is on the store shelf. Often you can't tell why they threw it out. Maybe it was contaminated. And you have no control over what it touches or what touches it before you find it.

This is why more food rescue organizations are so needed. They are not income based. They are open to everybody who eats. They rescue food headed to the dump and then people can eat it. There is no contamination involved, because it was donated in with other food, not thrown in a dumpster with other rubbish/animals to be found like a buried treasure. Often it is donated for being unsellable for cosmetic reasons. Or for overstock reasons.

~angie

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[Moxadox]

In my "other" country, Israel (I'm a dual citizen), we have a nationwide system that collects unserved meals from banquet halls. Since we have lots of banquets (weddings, especially, and other joyous celebrations), this amounts to a LOT of wonderful food that would otherwise be thrown out! So the gleaners make the rounds every night with refrigerated trucks, bring the carefully packaged meals to central locations where they are dispatched to elderly, shut-ins, and others who are registered by outreach workers. The food is delivered by 8 am.

We also have several systems of public food kitchens, eat-in, takeout, and delivery. Some are open to absolutely anyone who shows up. I used to work in one that specialized in feeding the home-bound with health issues (diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease). We prepared three meals a day, packaged and delivered them. Our "customers" were sent to us by hospital discharge nurses and social workers. This system helped keep people in their homes and out of the hospital (and out of the dumpsters), because it addressed their dietary needs rather than just dumping them back out with no support. No charge for the meals, either!

The gleaning system was brought by an American MBA who moved to Israel and was shocked by the waste he saw, because everyone orders so many meals for banquets, not knowing the exact number of guests and it's never OK to run out of food so everyone orders far more than actually gets eaten. I tried to do this in the US, but unfortunately there are laws here against reusing prepared meals even if they are unserved, untouched, never left the kitchen.

I even tried to salvage unused meals from schools, which goes directly in the trash and is such a waste, to feed homeless humans, and was blocked by "regulations" that commit this food, bought by our tax $ via the FDA, to the garbage. So frustrating! They charge ridiculous amounts for school lunches, then throw half of them out! After working in the Israeli food kitchen system and seeing how it's possible to redistribute food to whoever needs it, it's really painful to see how food in the US is used as a tool to make sure the have-nots know who they are.



The Dire Wolfess

 

[John61CT]

Meet The Woman Who Led Denmark to Cut Food Waste By 25% in 5 Years

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/denmark-food-waste-selina-juul-25-five-years-stop/

 

[closeanuf]

Not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but I think we have cities and counties in the US who have bigger populations than Israel or Denmark.  It's nice these countries were able to do something for hunger.  We have too many politicians here who would try to profit from it and screw it up.  It doesn't make any sense what you are saying about wasting school food but that goes to the politicians screwing things up.  Follow the money.

 

[Dingfelder]

How much do school lunches in the U.S. public schools cost these days? And how much in Israel?

 

[John61CT]

How much the students are charged, is a completely different number from the per-meal cost to the school system

 

[Moxadox]

How much do school lunches in the U.S. public schools cost these days? And how much in Israel?

Interestingly, I had a hard time finding an answer to the first question. The best I could do was this https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/price-of-a-school-lunch-on-the-rise-nationwide
And it seems to be around $2.50, plus/minus.

Second part is easy: everybody brings their lunch in Israel. Mostly humus (pronounced HOO-moos, y'all) and pita (not "pita bread," which is redundant, because pita IS the bread), and Israeli cucumbers (whole), a tomato, and a carrot. Very few obese kids in Israel! Typical Israeli lunch box has a small container of humus, a bunch of veggies, a container of labaneh (a dairy product similar to yogurt), and a pita. Maybe a hard boiled egg. Of course everybody shares, nobody goes without.

The Dire Wolfess

 

[John61CT]

The Ex-Noma Chef Cooking Nutritious School Lunches From Scratch
https://www.eater.com/2018/11/8/180...tious-school-lunches-american-cafeterias-noma

 

[AdVanture]

Im an avid Dumpster Diver. Im actually supprised to read most of these comments. So close minded considering the forum. Ive had some AMAZING meals from produce and scores of perfectly good meat!

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

 . . . produce and scores of perfectly good meat!

Mine and most of the other's objections were for giving the dumpster food to a food shelf without informing of the source.  What you put into your body is your choice.

I would take exception to your claim that it is 'perfectly good'.  You can't know that.  You cannot know how long the food has been kept in unsafe conditions, nor are dumpsters protected from rodents, flies and other disease carrying critters.

 

[highdesertranger]

unless you are absolutely certain of the chain of events that led to the food being in the dumpster. It is very dangerous to be assuming that the food is perfectly safe. highdesertranger

 

[Dingfelder]

Gotta agree with both the above. There is no way whatsoever to know whether the food is safe.

Dumpster diving would be for most people an absolute desperation move, too. They won't be clamoring to do it unless we're already post-apocalypse.

 

[AMGS3]

I 100% agree with the mindset that edible food should not be wasted. We shouldn't be throwing it away just because it's a little bruised up or it's going to expire in a few days, or (for that matter) it's 'best by' date was a couple days ago, or there's just a surplus of it. But 'liberating it's from a dumpster', where you have no control over what condition it's in, and no way of knowing how edible it really is, is not the way to fix food waste. Get to it before it gets to the dumpster.
Literally.
Why not ask the store manager if they have any food that they are going to be throwing away, then ask if you can have it? At least that way you know it didn't sit for hours with rodents crawling all over it. Or get tossed in with poo bags or cleaning products from other people using the same dumpster to throw away trash.
I think that either asking personally (for yourself) or working with an organization that rescues food is really the better way to go if one is worried about food waste. When you get right down to it, a bigger % of food obtained before it hits the dumpster by 'food rescue' groups or individuals is actually edible (compared to dumpster diving and hoping what you find hasn't been tainted by mishandling, accidental contamination, being mixed in with garbage, or sampled by animals).
If you are interested in saving food from being thrown away in the first place, then volunteering for a food rescue organization near you might be something that you'd be interested in. Many of these orgs rely heavily on generous volunteers willing to give a few hours a week to prevent food waste from happening.

Here's a link to another thread with links to food rescue organizations near you if you are interested. https://vanlivingforum.com/showthread.php?tid=33826



~angie

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[RoamerRV428]

Im an avid Dumpster Diver. Im actually supprised to read most of these comments. So close minded considering the forum. Ive had some AMAZING meals from produce and scores of perfectly good meat!

not closed minded.  Seeing the truth and acknowledging it.
eating food dumped in an unsanitary, guaranteed rodent/germ/diseased canister is a great vehicle to have tons of nasty on it.  sorry but if you want it, go for it.....but don't put your denial of the truth as close minded on others.

 

[frater secessus]

It may be kneejerk disgust but I think that it is also rational to let people know and consider where the donations you are giving them came from.

Well, I'd say it is ethical to let people know (which I did).  Then again, I am a purist who never tricked my kid into eating vegetables by claiming they were something else, or told Santa Claus stories.

I share info because I think it is the right thing to do, not because I think it will result in some net-positive outcome. People are not rational, and notoriously poor assessors of risk.  Nassim Nicholas Taleb's work may be instructive here.  I mean, people KNOW that raw ground meat and eggs are disease vectors and still undercook them and get sick.  People KNOW that cigarettes are dangerous to health and still smoke.  But watch people shopping at the store:  if someone picks up a can, reads the label, and then puts it down the next shopper will avoid that perfect can and pick another (identical) one.   None of these behaviors is rational.  If the previously-touched can was the last one then the second shopper would be better off not knowing the first shopper had touched it. 

Sidenote:  I assume the provenance requirement would apply to all donations, not just DD..

 

[frater secessus]

It is very dangerous to be assuming that the food is perfectly safe.  highdesertranger

That is the case for all food, not just DD.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

That is the case for all food, not just DD.

It's about the level of risk one is willing to assume.  There is a big difference in the risk of contamination between a steak sitting for 12 hours in a refrigerated case and a steak sitting in a dumpster for 12 hours.

 

[Dingfelder]

Exactly.

 

[Beeps and eats]

Yes after 12 hours in a dumpster it's perfectly aged and ready to go on the grill
Or wrap it in foil and throw it on the engine and drive to your next location and dinner is ready when you get there.

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[Dingfelder]

Nothing like rat piss marinade!