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Some bagel shops, restaurants etc. throw out excess food at the end if the day. Supermarkets might throw out bread etc. one day past sell-by date (I forget the

Some bagel shops, restaurants etc. throw out excess food at the end if the day. Supermarkets might throw out bread etc. one day past sell-by date (I forget the supermarket details). It's a social thing really. Food Not Bombs would gather food from dumpsters (more excess food than half-eaten rolls), then eat communal meals in parks along with any hungry or homeless people. Fancy restaurants throw away unused food, people are hungry and don't have much money for food, FNB puts it together for free meals once a week. I know Food Not Bombs was doing this in Florida and had trouble with the police. It was a real all-American conflaton - hungry people lining up for free food, even if it came from dumpsters, police cars rolling up with night sticks and guns to stop this, anal-retentive upper middle class white liberals pontificating about the feeding, the discarded food from the upscale restaurants going to waste amidst the police breaking up the food lines. As American as apple pie.

cortesoft 5y ago
Are there really no health risks from eating food that has been in a dumpster?
- hutzlibu 5y ago
  There are, if eaten raw, but if cooked, usually not so much, if there was not literal poison in the trash as well. In either case, when you are hungry, bad food is still better than no food. (unless it is so bad, that that you puke from it, but poor people usually have a strong stomach. They have to have)
  - DarylZero 5y ago
    Poor people in America can get SNAP.
    - kingcharles 5y ago
      I'm a poor person in America and I cannot get SNAP as I am only a legal resident alien.
      - DarylZero 5y ago
        That's super fucked up. There is still a remote chance you qualify FYI: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility/citizen/non-citizen-policy https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility/citizen/non-citize...
        kingcharles 5y ago
        Thanks for that link, that was an interesting read, but sadly I don't think I qualify for any of those exemptions. It's more messed-up because I'm currently on house arrest and so I can't even go to a food bank to get food. I have to rely on the kindness of strangers who pass through the building I live at - occasionally one of them will drop off some food randomly. I'm pretty much down to some packets of stuffing and cans of sliced potatoes right now, but I don't mind. Before I started my last business I was down to zero and was finding canned food in Dumpsters, which while it isn't great, will mean you don't die!
        forgotmypw17 5y ago
        Are you allowed to receive delivered packages?
    - forgotmypw17 5y ago
      Snap is an illusion. The reality of it is that you may get it for a year max, and that is not most people. The best case scenario process is demeaning, from the application to the limited acceptance to the hoops you have to jump through at the store.
      - DarylZero 5y ago
        >The reality of it is that you may get it for a year max SNAP doesn't have time limits like that. I think you're thinking of TANF which does have time limits. > process is demeaning Absolutely. Still, over 10% of people in USA receive SNAP (including myself) and it's why poor people don't literally starve here anymore.
        forgotmypw17 5y ago
        My experience with SNAP is different from what you describe. So is the experience of many people I have talked to.
        forgotmypw17 5y ago
        >SNAP doesn't have time limits like that. >I think you're thinking of TANF which does have time limits. No, actually, I am talking about SNAP specifically, the only program I have personal experience with, as well as know people who have also experienced it. If you are in any way "on the grid", SNAP will make you do a mountain of work collecting all your paperwork proof that you actually qualify for it. If you have not given up yet, you MAY get the benefits. In order to claim them, you will have to carefully look for which stores support them (by far not all) and then carefully select the products you're buying, and then argue with the cashier or manager (or put the product back) if it has not been correctly entered into the POS system as eligible. THEN, a year later, you will have to go through a detailed re-certification process, which requires scheduling an appointment for a phone call, making that phone call at a certain time, holding on the phone for an hour before being hung up on, re-scheduling that appointment, and so on, until eventually you MAY then be required to receive a mailing at an address that you have to respond to. Then, and only then, you may receive your benefits for another year. If you cannot list at least 5-10 ways a person must be hugely privileged in order to receive these very basic 200 dollars worth of food credits per month in the text below, please consider yourself extremely privileged to not realize this. Because it requires the ability to be patient and polite to often rude and impatient handlers (a HUGE privilege), having a phone you can call from for an hour, having an address, being able to deal with all this paperwork, and being able to stick with a long and complicated process, one which is more involved and time-consuming than everything which was required of me to operate a single-person contractor business, something I also had experience with just a few years prior. Think about that. You have to do more legwork and paperwork in order to receive "basic" benefits to feed yourself than to operate a business. In a country which is overflowing with food resources (double-digit percent of food thrown in the trash every day).
- forgotmypw17 5y ago
  I only eat food of acceptable quality. I actually have not eaten from a dumpster in months. But most dumpster food is quite safe, because it is still in packaging, or it is of the non-risky variety.
- pcthrowaway 5y ago
  When I was volunteering with Food Not Bombs, we actually didn't dumpster much, there were an abundance of stores and suppliers willing to just give us what they were going to throw out if we could organize a collection time. We did occasionally dumpster also though, but Food Not Bombs groups have a loose guideline of serving vegan food, which is much less likely to go bad after a few hours of not being refrigerated (though the veganism is part of the ethics also)

cortesoft 5y ago

Are there really no health risks from eating food that has been in a dumpster?

hutzlibu 5y ago
There are, if eaten raw, but if cooked, usually not so much, if there was not literal poison in the trash as well. In either case, when you are hungry, bad food is still better than no food. (unless it is so bad, that that you puke from it, but poor people usually have a strong stomach. They have to have)
- DarylZero 5y ago
  Poor people in America can get SNAP.
  - kingcharles 5y ago
    I'm a poor person in America and I cannot get SNAP as I am only a legal resident alien.
    - DarylZero 5y ago
      That's super fucked up. There is still a remote chance you qualify FYI: https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility/citizen/non-citizen-policy https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/eligibility/citizen/non-citize...
      - kingcharles 5y ago
        Thanks for that link, that was an interesting read, but sadly I don't think I qualify for any of those exemptions. It's more messed-up because I'm currently on house arrest and so I can't even go to a food bank to get food. I have to rely on the kindness of strangers who pass through the building I live at - occasionally one of them will drop off some food randomly. I'm pretty much down to some packets of stuffing and cans of sliced potatoes right now, but I don't mind. Before I started my last business I was down to zero and was finding canned food in Dumpsters, which while it isn't great, will mean you don't die!
        forgotmypw17 5y ago
        Are you allowed to receive delivered packages?
  - forgotmypw17 5y ago
    Snap is an illusion. The reality of it is that you may get it for a year max, and that is not most people. The best case scenario process is demeaning, from the application to the limited acceptance to the hoops you have to jump through at the store.
    - DarylZero 5y ago
      >The reality of it is that you may get it for a year max SNAP doesn't have time limits like that. I think you're thinking of TANF which does have time limits. > process is demeaning Absolutely. Still, over 10% of people in USA receive SNAP (including myself) and it's why poor people don't literally starve here anymore.
      - forgotmypw17 5y ago
        My experience with SNAP is different from what you describe. So is the experience of many people I have talked to.
      - forgotmypw17 5y ago
        >SNAP doesn't have time limits like that. >I think you're thinking of TANF which does have time limits. No, actually, I am talking about SNAP specifically, the only program I have personal experience with, as well as know people who have also experienced it. If you are in any way "on the grid", SNAP will make you do a mountain of work collecting all your paperwork proof that you actually qualify for it. If you have not given up yet, you MAY get the benefits. In order to claim them, you will have to carefully look for which stores support them (by far not all) and then carefully select the products you're buying, and then argue with the cashier or manager (or put the product back) if it has not been correctly entered into the POS system as eligible. THEN, a year later, you will have to go through a detailed re-certification process, which requires scheduling an appointment for a phone call, making that phone call at a certain time, holding on the phone for an hour before being hung up on, re-scheduling that appointment, and so on, until eventually you MAY then be required to receive a mailing at an address that you have to respond to. Then, and only then, you may receive your benefits for another year. If you cannot list at least 5-10 ways a person must be hugely privileged in order to receive these very basic 200 dollars worth of food credits per month in the text below, please consider yourself extremely privileged to not realize this. Because it requires the ability to be patient and polite to often rude and impatient handlers (a HUGE privilege), having a phone you can call from for an hour, having an address, being able to deal with all this paperwork, and being able to stick with a long and complicated process, one which is more involved and time-consuming than everything which was required of me to operate a single-person contractor business, something I also had experience with just a few years prior. Think about that. You have to do more legwork and paperwork in order to receive "basic" benefits to feed yourself than to operate a business. In a country which is overflowing with food resources (double-digit percent of food thrown in the trash every day).
forgotmypw17 5y ago
I only eat food of acceptable quality. I actually have not eaten from a dumpster in months. But most dumpster food is quite safe, because it is still in packaging, or it is of the non-risky variety.
pcthrowaway 5y ago
When I was volunteering with Food Not Bombs, we actually didn't dumpster much, there were an abundance of stores and suppliers willing to just give us what they were going to throw out if we could organize a collection time. We did occasionally dumpster also though, but Food Not Bombs groups have a loose guideline of serving vegan food, which is much less likely to go bad after a few hours of not being refrigerated (though the veganism is part of the ethics also)