I've touched on food waste a couple of times in the course of writing this blog and personal food waste is always on my mind. Recently, I met a dude who told me he spent a lot of time out east doing dumpster dives and cooking for the homeless. To the latter statement, I thought "awwwww" to the former I thought, "Huh?/Ewwwwwww."
I guess I've never really met anyone who said one of their hobbies was to jump into a giant trash bin behind the whole foods, so I really didn't understand that that was a thing, let alone that it was a thing you could spend a lot of time doing. It so happened that the documentary Dive was all cued up on my parent's Netflix ready to show me what this whole thing was all about.
Dive follows around a bunch of young divolutionaries (new word!) who leap headfirst into trash for their breakfast, lunch and dinner. Yes, this sounds gross. I'm with you if you think that it sounds like one of the most disgusting ways to sustain a lively hood. However, a few minutes into the documentary, you start to see that these folks are living the life. They survive on a better diet than I could ever afford and they do it all for free. This documentary will teach you how to be a dietitian straight from the dumpster. Now I can't say that I made it all the way through the film. They all could have succumb to some odd food poisoning in the end, for all I know. My dad got home and I promptly turned it off before he started to fear for my sanity and wonder where his dinner came from.
But what I did see really sticks with me. There are people out there who are doing something about American food waste by getting out of the food system all together. They’re not just writing for a little vegan recipe blog; they're rescuing our food from the landfill. Now, back to the I met. He was taking it a step further and cooking the food to give to people who live on the street. That sounds pretty effin sweet.
So what do you think? Is dumpster diving gross or revolutionary?
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