Urban WWOFer Dumpster Diving: Oh, the Bounty!

Bounty from Day 1

 
Detailed account of first night's plenty:
- Six sushi packages
- two boxes of assorted brownies
- one almond cake (had a second, but gifted it to another man at the dumpster)
- two trays of dark chocolate dipped fruit (also had a third, but gifted it to the man at the dumpster)
- at least two dozen onions, apples, oranges, peppers, and avocados
- two packages of raspberries
- package green beans
- box of spinach
- box of lettuce mix
- head of lettuce
- hummus
- chopped onion
- two packages of tofu dogs
- Mexican bean dip
- three bananas
- two boxes black eyed peas

I couldn't possibly eat all of that!  I could hardly carry it.

I took a tiny fraction of what was available; that almond cake I chose out of dozens of cakes, and those fruit trays were three out of a bag full of them.

I had loaded up with dessert at Citarella (upscale grocery store) and then stopped at The Food Emporium.  By the time I had finished there, there was no chance I was going to make it to Trader Joe's six more blocks up (always promising dumsters!)  Conveniently, that night they were throwing away a perfectly good handheld grocery basket.  I filled that, filled the basket on the back of my bike, and stuck a few things in my backpack.  At this point, another man had stopped to do his dumpster shopping, and I blew him away with my dumpster generosity.  "There is so much tonight!  Look in here; I found tons of apples!  And take one of these bean dips...Oh my gosh!  You should see all that there is down the street!  It's a long walk without a bike.  Here:  take a cake and some dark chocolate dipped fruit..."  Because our arms were so full and I could not possibly balance everything for ninety blocks on my bike, he helped me carry my basket and I joined him on the train back home.

Sigh.  Of course there is excitement over what I find, but there is always an equal amount of disgust.  The day I have to start buying all of my food will be an exciting day...because it will mean that the world--particularly the US--has stopped throwing away such an absurd amount of good food (according to a 2011 study, about 1/3 of global food production is thrown away or uneaten annually http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ags/publications/GFL_web.pdf ).

Bounty of Day 2

Two nights dumpstering Citarella alone I got over $250 dollars of food in packaged cakes, cookies, apple loafs, and sushi.  $250.  And that was just what was labeled.  And what I could carry.

That's right:  dozens of biscotti and two carmel apples!

This weekend, I gave two of the biscotti.  I'm not ashamed.  

I would never have dumpstered on a third day after all of this (my cupboards are teaming!) but it was a special occasion.  I was on my way home when my friend Nate--a opera singer who I met at an Upper West Side dumpster--texted me.  "Lots of summer squash, bread, and sushi at UWS Whole Foods!" he wrote.  I was with my roommate who said, "I wouldn't mind some summer squash..." so I made the trip.  I was too worn out to clean up a third night of four roommates' worth of trash on the kitchen counter,  so no third picture documentation.  :-(

I invited Nate over that night.  He took a bag full of desert, limes, and sushi.  He brought me a surprise container of butterscotch.  Sharing is caring.