Dumpster Diving!

On Thursday in class we had David Giles visit, and I would consider him to be our most interesting guest speaker to date. David works for the organization “Food Not Bombs.” He is a frequent dumpster diver, and literally dives in dumpsters to save food that is still edible. He and the organization he is involved in give out a lot of food every year to homeless shelters, and they also provide free markets where they just give away food for free.

To be honest, before meeting David, I was slightly reluctant to a profession that involved diving into dumpsters to scrounge for food. However after tasting the dumpster fresh orange juice and listening to David talk about his experience in Food Not Bombs and how many people the program feeds every single day, I was able to stray away from the fact that the food comes from a dumpster. It is all completely sanitary and often times thrown away before its over due date because of grocery store overstock. David also stressed that dumpster diving does not always involve literally diving into a dumpster, their greatest contributions come from grocery stores or farmers markets that are willing to give away their food at the end of the day rather than throw it away.

Hearing David speak and learning about his organization has opened my mind tremendously to the possibilities and means of attaining food. In our class we are often focused on growing our own foods, however we do not often discuss how much is discarded every single day and how that food can easily be made into another family’s dinner.