ottawa foodies

I just finished watching today's Oprah (I tape it) and I thought this is definitely one for the Foodies Forum.

Lisa Ling, did a special report on “Freegans”. Freegans are people who have decided as a society we are wasting too much of a good thing, that we are trapped in a word of consume, consume, consume. And this crosses all manner of goods. But the one I was most shocked by was food. Lisa Ling joined a group of New York City Freegans, as they dumpster dive for foods that have been thrown out at Grocery Stores, Bakeries and Restaurants.

Ok, I know that there is a lot of wastage in our society, and I believe that Grocery Stores, Bakeries and Restaurants should do more to put aside items that don’t meet “their standards” but would be perfectly ok for consumption. And more should be done to get these food items into the hands of the hungry (especially food banks). But that said, I find it awful that otherwise normal people are dumpster diving in order to save money. H3LL in the case of one newlywed couple, he was a Doctor and she was a Lawyer. To me this is just crazy, they don’t buy much of anything, getting their food, furnishings and clothing from dumpster outings.

As one who has worked in the food industry, I know that a lot of otherwise perfectly good stuff goes in the trash daily. BUT, I also know that sometimes things go out for other reasons… and I’d be worried that because someone isn’t aware of the reason, they would eat something that was just not right. I mean there was frozen food and meat in these New York Dumpters… who’s to know why they were there! Not to mention all the germs that come in contact with fruits, veggies and packaging sitting in dirty dumpters. ICK!

Any thoughts on this?

Honestly, I feel kinda "meh" about it. People in third world countries eat a lot worse than what can be found in city dumpsters - our society is just so obsessed with germs that we assume everything that is thrown away will automatically make us sick. Sure the potential for cross-contamination from already rotted food, and bacteria growing while the trash sits there (assuming it is summer and not winter, which I guess would offer refrigeration) is much higher, it is not a absolute certainty that it will be hazerdous. Thinking about the restaurant that I work in, the trash from the kitchen is put into plastic bags, and then into the dumpsters, so really they are just big bags of food stuffs that have no contact with the dumpster itself, or any other trash - just food, and food packaging. Knowing what spoiled food looks and smells like, I feel confident that I could go through my restaurant's trash and come up with a enough for a meal and, after a good wash, would not me me sick if I got to the bag within a short amount of time after it being thrown out. I guess my biggest concern would be bacteria I couldn't see, such as if there had been a beef recall due to ecoli or something...

I doubt these people are unaware of the potential dangers of thier life-style, so I guess I'm happy that someone is using the food that is wasted; I say live and let live.

Hmmmm....I wonder if I'm totally weird for it not bothering me that much and not thinking it's that gross lol. If I ever have kids I'll probably be the kind of mom that lets her kids eat dirt and cat food lol.

I agree with FiH (don't I always? ;-)). I had an interesting conversation with a coworker, where I was describing the concept of a 'forever' pot of refried beans (Mexican style). You cook a batch.. and what doesn't get eaten, get's put in the fridge, and put back on the stove the next day. You add more beans each day as required. My coworker was really grossed out, and thought that this would make you very sick. I asked what would make you sick? The beans get re-sterilized each day, and are kept in the fridge in between. I knew a place years ago that more or less did this. There was the occasional cleaning of the pot, and starting again from fresh.. but the fresh pot never tasted as good.... I too feel confident in trusting my nose to smell the bad food, in fact I am surprised when I can detect an odour when those around me cannot. I've become the official smeller in the household, with my wife regularly asking for my olfactory opinion.

As kids we had one Tim Hortons in the community about 5km from my parents house. We used to sleep out in the back yard in the summer and walk over there in the middle of the night and dumpster dive for big bags of donuts. I've even done it during my university years. I'd probably do it today if I like donuts that much. They always put the donuts in their own garbage bag. Or they did back then at least.

Oh, and I agree completely with FiH. In fact I generally try to temper every thing I do with that thought.

EDIT : I had a friend who had a pot of "forever" soup like that during university.

Oh, and I think it takes more guts to admit you watch Oprah then to admit you go dumpster diving :-P

strange...

I've been to third world countries where the truely homeless (which were very few, actually), would wait, patiently, at the back entrance to a restaurant, in anticipation of left-overs.

Does that happen here ? ... or do they have to wait for it to hit the dumpster ?, or the food bank ? or wherever ?

yes... very starnge

Cap'n, yes it absolutely happens here. I know a freegan, and he's very hardcore about it... it's mostly a philosophical endeavour (attempting a zero-ecological-footprint), which I give him credit for attempting. He's very knowledgable about what to eat, how to "clean up" foods that are damaged, etc. He doesn't eat any meat at all, and very little dairy, though he argues that the dairy is so pasteurized these days that it's pretty safe to eat unless it's very hot outside. For him, it's a matter of choice, and not of circumstance.

Zym - funny you mention the donut-dumpster-diving, I used to do the exact same thing.

Didn't I see, in a movie sometime, these 2 guys order up two large pizza's for pick-up ..... and never pick them up.



Much later on, there they are, in back of the pizza shop digging the two unclaimed pizza's out of the dumpster ??

"H3LL in the case of one newlywed couple, he was a Doctor and she was a Lawyer." Some time ago there was a story on the National about a group of Freegans in Toronto. They were all university educated, had good jobs, and were quite passionate about what they did and did it mostly for altruistic reasons. The young lady that founded the Toronto group had spent a year in New York where she was involved in the freegan movement there. She was asked if she was worried about getting sick and she said she already had. Apparently when she was living in New York someone had disposed of rat poison in the dumpster she frequented. Needless to say she spent the evening at the poison control centre. And she is still dumpster diving. Although I would be suspicious of what the restaurants throw out I would be even more leary of what would be found in home garbages - there is nothing like having a little Tide with your vegetables!

"Rethink Garbage. It Belongs to All of Us" is a City of Ottawa slogan. They should maybe add an image of a knife & fork to the sides of the new Green Bins, the program set to begin in 2009. (NOT a great idea in my mind...rather than a giant truck chugging through neighbourhoods collecting, how about everyone COMPOST on their own.)
The less garbage that heads to the landfill the better. If someone, whatever their circumstance, wants* to eat from the garbage (and I'm certain there's a load in there that is perfectly edible) ~ good luck and bon appétit.

* the 'needs to eat from garbage' is a far bigger concern/issue.

For all you dumpster-donut-lovin'-people, from a classic Seinfeld episode...

Elaine, in an alley with Glenn: "So, what are we doing in this alley, anyway?"
Glenn: "It's a surprise."
Elaine, giggling: "Oh."
[a nearby door opens, and a cook throws a garbage bag out into a trash can; Glenn immediately goes for the bag]
Elaine: "What are you doing? What is that?"
Glenn: "It's a bag of donuts."
Elaine: "It's garbage."
Glenn, looking in the bag: "No, no, no, no, no. When they make the new ones, the old ones come out right here."
Elaine (realizing then that Glenn isn't a Super Hero but poor) pulls out her checkbook: "All right, that's it. How do you spell your last name?"
Glenn, still looking through the garbage bag: "It's a bear claw! You have no idea how rare this is!"
Elaine: "I'll make it out to cash. How 'bout two hundred bucks? Two-fifty?"
Glenn, eating the bear claw: "Mmm!"
Elaine: "I'll make it three hundred."
Glenn, handing her the bear claw: "You know, Elaine, you are the bear claw in the garbage can of my life."

AMR, I agree with you on composting which is why I will still compost at home. But keep in mind that there are a lot of apartment buildings out there. And a lot of other places with no room to compost. Plus, the city program should take things like meat and so forth which I won't put into my compost so as not to attract rodents.

I'm a big fan of Hamilton's green box program for that very reason, Zym. You can put *everything* in that bad boy, and they'll take it away for you. I expect the amount of stuff that gets thrown in my garbage to go down quite a lot once we get our green box program in swing. I throw out a great deal of paper towel/carrot tops/tea leaves/what-have-you.

This is developing into an interesting topic.

Looks like I'm in the minority in that I wouldn't dumpster dive... cause I'd worry about what unknowns the food might come in contact with (like Pasta Lovers story). To me once it's in the GARBAGE its GARBAGE.

Do I think that as North Americans we throw too much away. Absolutely! Oprah was shocked to discover that in a restaurant the basket of rolls presented to your table, end up in the trash if they are not eaten. I know that the place I worked when they cleared the table would throw out anything the customer might have touched (creamers, butter pats, napkins, straws wrapped in paper) the works.

Personally, I'd like to see a lot more things go to food banks etc. But part of the problem is cost. In many cases donating to a food bank becomes the restaurant's issue... they have to get the goods to the food bank. And in many cases the restaurant doesn't want the hassle or cost. The problem is even greater in the burbs. So in the end it all goes into the trash. To me that is awful. And in turn causes the next issue (see my reply below)

CaptainC - There is an issue with dumpster diving in Ottawa. Many restaurants don't end up donating their leftovers to food banks (see reasons above) so the items end up in the dumpster. That inturn attracts the dumpster divers, which for the restaurants "isn't attractive for them" so they have combated this in two ways (a) fence the dumpster area with a fence so high that one cannot climb over it, (b) lock the dumpster area, and (c) lastly call the police if dumpster divers still persist in coming around. This inturn means that the hungry individual gets picked up by the cops... and well that doesn't seem to solve anything for that person, or make their poor life better. It's called PASSING THE BUCK... RATHER THAN SPENDING THE BUCK! IMO It is time something was done to rectify this.

GREEN BINS - Of course all this will become moot once this program goes into place. The Green Bins require that EVERYTHING goes in one bin (read the list... you might be surprised) with no packaging / insert bags. So there will no longer be food that will salvageable / edible.

I absolutely agree what's garbage is garbage. As for the green bins I know the city was talking about accepting compost material at one point but didn't realize they had planned on putting everything into the same bin. Kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it? I live in an apartment and probably 90% of what I throw out is fruit and vegetable peelings and tea and coffee grounds. I wish I knew someone with a compost heap...

Pasta Lover - EVERYTHING that the City (and the experts) have determined to be compostable will go in one green bin. So that will include among other things - Veggies, Meat, Used Paper Products (including - coffee filters, kleenex, paper towel, diapers, sanitary products, etc).

The Toronto Food Bank deals with this issue pretty well. They call restaurants for food they don't want, go pick it up, cook it, and deliver it to the various shelters around the city. This was spear-headed by Gerrard Kennedy, and the program was featured on a Micheal Smith show on the food network. Obviously they didn't get leftovers from EVERY restaurant in Toronto, but I am under the impression it is a very successful program. It would be cool to see something huge like that take place here.

Kiwiw - I know the Ottawa Food Bank trucks food that they receive to various shelters and other good causes across the city (and don't get me wrong they do a fantastic job with the resources they have). BUT, IMO more could be done by the Restaurants, Groceries, Bakeries etc in Ottawa in the way of getting on board. Charity / Volunteer Organizations like the Food Bank don't have the funds to become a pick-up service... it would be so much easier if more places called the Food Bank and see if they'd take their leftovers, and inturn make the effort to get the items to the Food Bank, and therefore into the hands of the hungry.

As for the success of a program... well that is relative. Anything edible that doesn't go into the trash, is a success. I'd be curious to know the numbers that are actually participating. Toronto though, no doubt has some of the same issues as Ottawa... urban sprawl means that distance from the Food Bank impacts the donations.

And yes... I'd love to see more attention given to the issue and things change for the better.

Who knows, maybe the Green Bin Program will bring this issue further to the forefront.

I'll turn that comment around : anything edible that does not get eaten is a failure. Doesn't matter if it gets composted or not.