While grocery shopping tonight I was amazed how the price of food has risen in just a few short months. Looking at all the prices reminded me of a video I watched a few nights ago. Making news around the country is a group called Freegans. They do not purchase food but rather find their food by going through dumpsters and trash put out by grocery stores. I found this video fascinating, and ended up watching several more that night. The video I have posted is about three minutes. I would love for you all to watch it and weigh in with your opinions.
I must admit I am undecided about this growing trend. I am tempted to find a group in my area and see if I could tag along one night. The thought of free food and reducing waste really appeals to me, but I am not sure if I could eat something that I found in a garbage bag. What do you think?
Um, I think my frugality would end before foraging in the trash for food… but, never say never!
Just fyi the video is no longer available.
you’re undecided? seriously? I get that apples and bananas are probably gonna be okay, but I’m not sure I want to go through anybody’s trash for food. I do agree that we throw away too much that is still good, but can’t we just encourage them to give to soup kitchens or something like that?
I’ll definitely be watching for your freegan ride along blog entry…
Go for it!!!! I’ll come with you!!!!
Um, no thanks…communal living and eating out of garbage cans. I don’t think so. Some of the food that they found looked impressive but I think they need to start working with the grocery stores to encourage them to donate it to homeless shelters. Now that’s just gross.
I don’t comment often, but I found this entry interesting. I was hesitant to even watch the video because the explanation of it made me a little sick. While I appreciate the frugality of such ventures, I honestly think these people are somewhat insane. It would be one thing to get free food as the grocery store closed… expired, etc. But to go through the garbage? There is no way of knowing what kind of bacteria might be living among other items also placed in the trash, even if the apples, bananas, etc were just fine. The food is most assuredly not handled with care by the store workers (it’s trash!), and just because one dude has never gotten sick doesn’t make that the general rule for dumpster diving. That’s what I think anyway. I agree that the best thing to do would be to get these stores to donate their old food items to homeless shelters or maybe have a designated time at night when people can come get food for free. That way it wouldn’t go to waste and could still be handled properly as food rather than trash.
I’ll be interested to see where you come down on this! Thanks for sharing the interesting (and gross) video. Take care!
I’ve seen these people on Oprah before. I would not dumpster dive for food. But I can be better about using our leftovers and other food before it goes bad.
Okay! Maybe if my family had no food. Then at that time anything would be better than nothing. Other than that situation, I will be frugal but not freegan!
No thanks, that’s just gross. I’m happy to score reduced items in the grocery store and if someone has a perfectly good toy or piece of furniture sitting next to their trashcans, great, but actually rummaging through the bags is too much. Who knows what else might be in there?
There is a line that I cannot cross. I can’t even shop at a store that has a funny smell. I love the idea of having grocery stores donating to homeless shelters.
Desperate times, desperate measures. Who knows? The video is not available so we can’t see it..
I refreshed and saw the video. Golly laughed and said, “We’re not going to eat in a restaurant ever again… that’s where you get food poisoning!”
DID you see that guys hair… what’s growing in there???
Wow! I definitely wouldn’t do this, but that is a LOT of food that is wasted. Why don’t the grocery stores donate it? That would help with some that go without food everyday.
I’m all for frugal, but I read about the concept of Freegans a long time ago and there’s just no way I could do it.
Hmmm…that’s interesting. My mother-in-law was a mother of eight children and was very, very frugal. She would go to some of the nearby restaurants or grocery stores on days when she knew they were about to throw away things such as bread (which hadn’t gone bad yet) but I don’t think she ever actually went through the dumpsters. She just made friends with the owner and asked them to save things for her. It usually worked.
Hi! I just wanted to say thank you for posting on my blog. That was a nice surprise for me! Thanks!
One could gather some good composting materials in order to grow healthy food!
It’s interesting that these kind of “greener” groups often say how much better the world would be if everyone did what they did. But if EVERYONE did what they did, dumpster dived for food, eventually there wouldn’t even BE food to throw away because all those “evil” companies that are “destroying” the planet would be put out of business. (No more food “buyers” = no more food sellers = so more food growers.)
It’s fine if some live this way if that’s their choice, but there will always have to be paying consumers AND (those “evil”) producers. Regardless of what they’re saying, Freegans are still consumers. Although they’re not buying the food, they’re still eating the food that is produced and marketed by the “evil” corporations. And they wouldn’t be able to dumpster dive any more if those “evil” corporations went out of business.
It reminds me of the argument against “Big Oil”. I guarantee even the most ardent environmentalist would miss oil if it were no longer allowed to be utilized in manufacturing. Things aren’t always black and white and although many corporations are doing “harm” to the environment, we can’t overlook the fact that in many cases we’d be much worse off without them.
Just my two cents.
Some of your readers have no idea about what they are speaking. Specifically, I’m commenting about those who say the freegans need to go to work at some of the businesses in order to teach them to donate the food to shelters. It’s not that simple.
Because of the legal implications of donating food passing expiration, these companies feel they have to throw it away, rather than face a frivilous law suit by someone looking to make a quick buck, or million.
In our town, we have a Walmart that lost power due to an ice storm. Although all the food was frozen or cold, because the power had been out for a certain amount of time, all the food was thrown away.
The workers cried as they disposed of the thousands of packages of meat, dairy and frozen items because, even though they knew it was perfectly healthy, the corporate policy prevented them from donating the food, even to the point that they would loose their jobs for disobedience.
Simply working at one of these facilities will not change that problem. We have a social mindset of waste in this country, which is further propagated by a fear of being sued and by greed.
We are supposed to be letting those less fortunate “GLEEN” from our fields, according to Scripture. Finding ways to make that happen can be a challenge, but if each of us does something, instead of waiting for a corporation to do it, we will make more of an impact than they ever could.
Instead of posting frequent complaints on our blogs, lets get out and use our frugality to flood our food pantries and shelters with bargains, so they can minister to those in need. JMHO
I would have to be completely broke and extremely hungry before I would consider dumpster diving for food. Once it’s in the dumpster it could pick up all kinds of bacteria. The thought of eating from a dumpster makes my stomach churn.
About 15 years ago, my neighbor was shopping at the grocery store. When she came to produce section, an employee was sorting out the “bad” produce. Any single banana, for example, was place on this cart fast filling up with beautiful produce. She inquired if these items were to be marked down. She was told the items were to be discarded but there was pig farmer coming regularly to pick up the items to feed his pigs. She asked what he paid and he replied, nothing! She asked if she came daily, if she could go through the rejected produce before the pig farmer. The employee agreed. Our children were young and money was very tight. I loved when she would come by and give us a bag full of lose grapes, single bananas, very ripe strawberrie I would immediately make into delicious jam or pies. We regularly had some of the most delicious vegetable soups . These items never touched the trash pile but they would if she didn’t rescue the items. We waste so much in the US. Sandra taught me so much about saving money. Somedays, she had so much extra after sharing with many young families at our church. She would cook up huge pots of vegetable soup and take to the mission house to feed the needy. When we moved from Georgia to Louisiana, my husband in seminary and a tight budget, I went to grocery store and talked to manager. I was not only allowed to pick through the “rejected” produce but the day old bread before it was discarded in the dumpster. I was able to share huge amounts with our seminary friends. What a blessing. Maybe this option doesn’t turn your stomach so much.
I think it’s a great idea! Not for me but for other people! Why not? There is no way that homeless shelters are going to take expired food and I agree that there are a lot of restaurants that are filthier than those garbage bags.
Another good idea was to use the food for compost. I would love to feed it to my chickens!
I don’t think I could do that. At all.
Sheryl has a great idea. I would do that. However, I wouldn’t get anything out of a garbage bag to eat.
I don’t really see a problem with taking the “cleaner” items. We do live in a culture of waste. Why not?
Interesting, the Article and the Replies, all very interesting. Lots of good ideas and opinions. I really don’t have a strong opinion either way and over the years I have learned not to say ‘I’d NEVER do that’.
I didn’t watch the video but that is because I know personally a few dumpster divers. They are all young in their early 20′s and have lived this way for few years now. It is almost a new way of living amongst them…I call them ‘the new age, naturalists, modern hippies, traveling hobos’. I have known many of them from young (they are all close friends of my children and often the children of my close friends and they all great kids). It is a Life Style they are choosing and it seems to work for them.
Also, there is a man – Federal Gov. Employee, a scientist, who has never purchased any food. He only dumpster dives, showers at work, microwaves his food at work, collects ‘tons’ of tin cans for cash, uses no electricity unless absolutely has to, stays in libraries and work to read and such, AND HE IS A MILLIONAIRE. Oh by the way – He is Single