Dinner's Ready!
The other day, a profoundly middle-class friend collapsed in self-righteous disgust when I told him this story. I’m curious to see what our readers think.
A few years ago, another friend used to root through the bins behind shops and restaurants in Dublin for perfectly good, thrown out food. Everything she took was clean, packaged, or easily washable. She then distributed it to the homeless and gave it to crowds at anti-war marches, crying “Food, not Bombs!” As she pointed out, it would otherwise have rotted in landfill and filled the atmosphere with poisonous methane.
About eight years ago, I used to run a fancy take-away food shop for two evenings a week, and I’d sneak out the day’s leftovers to two homeless visitors. I say sneak, because I’m pretty sure my boss would have fired me on the spot if she’d seen this. She saw the bin was seen as a more appropriate destination.
What do you think about salvaged food? And would you eat from a skip under any circumstances?
Wednesday 13 May, 2009 at 11:22 am
Freegans are awesome! If the food is packaged, not expired, and something I like to eat, I’d go there.
Wednesday 13 May, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Isn’t there a scheme whereby food restaurants and shops can donate their surplus at the end of the day to charities? I’ve heard of a van collecting after hours and taking the products to shelters…not sure if it was Dublin though….
Thursday 14 May, 2009 at 1:54 am
Where I work (not going to say where, given that I’m at the bottom of the totem pole), we throw out loads of food every day. It is such a ridiculous waste. Granted, the food is not packaged and may be considered ‘expired’ (Do slightly stale scones and muffins count? I think not.) If somebody does know of a scheme, I’d love to suggest it at my work. Or if anyone knows of any business-minded explanations I can make to my employers about how to conserve resources.
Thursday 14 May, 2009 at 12:26 pm
I have to give a very definate “unsure” on this. I regularly stalk the person steering the food to be reduced cart around Dunnes with no qualms at all. But to skip dive for food? I don’t think I would.
There is a baker in Cork that regularly tips his old stock on the side of and in the Lough. It drives me nuts and it the equivalent of littering. If he just sold it off, or produced less, he wouldnt have to pollute the water. Rant over. 🙂
Thursday 13 August, 2009 at 9:45 am
I think that some organisation like, groups that support homeless and schools in poor areas, are happy to use leftover scones and buns that cafes have left at end of trading day, saw such things delivered in clean plastic bags
Monday 2 November, 2009 at 9:01 pm
If the food is packaged + near the top of the skip and not long there, possibly OK. Don’t think I would fancy eating it if it was there a long time and perhaps became smelly from a stinky bin