Dumpster Diving....Cops, and the biggest offenders
Let's talk about something that we all know and that no one really talks about. I mean we talk about it, but we never really do anything about it. As a nation, we throw out approximately 50 percent of the food that we produce.
A lot of things in the world are just statistics and we like it like that because once it leaves our plates, then it goes away. Or if it never reaches our plate, no harm, no foul, right? I wonder how many people are brave enough to do what I did last night. Not because I hung out with a few homeless people and some of them were a little unsavory, but because what I did last night was take an actual look at something that we only talk about, something that is only a statistic. I looked in some dumpsters.
I have worked for major hotels, fast food, fine dining, and even as a personal chef. Each job has shown me a different aspect of how we treat our food once it leaves the kitchen. If I could give it a grade overall, I would say Fail.
The problem with restaurants is that they constantly have to produce more fresh food simply because they have to be prepared for guests who might show up. If those guests do not show, that food goes to waste. Whatever food establishment you go into, I can guarantee that there is someone whose job and to a large extent, passion to make sure that as little food goes into that dumpster as possible.
Depending on the kind of restaurant, that could be a hard road to hoe. Let's look at last nights biggest offender...Dunkin Donuts. When you go into a Dunkin' Donuts, most of those iced, stuffed, and or glazed donuts are destined for the dumpster. We found trash bags full of donuts as well as all of those little pink papers they use to hand you those donuts.
Chick-fil-a is the opposite. We spoke with some experts (homeless people) who said that at one point, there was an abundance and there were still some high volume restaurants that would toss a lot of food out if you knew where and when to look (just after closing in large cities like Atlanta. Where we were, there was a medium volume restaurant that closed late.
Starbucks is on the line. Many locations give their food to shelters at the end of the night...thumbs up! On the other side of that some locations are timid and tepid about engaging with the community to do other things. We get a fair amount of coffee grounds from them for our gardens. Still we have not heard of them having the best record of letting homeless people linger. That is another issue that we will go into at another time.
Burger King was the best...kinda...
When you go through the drive through at BK and change your mind or some other mistake is made, it appears that they take the messed up burger and throw it in a bucket. At certain intervals it is weighed to calculate food waste and then, at the end of the night, it is thrown out. BK is open late at night and is staffed by humans. Good humans. If they look out the door as they are going to throw this food out and see someone standing there waiting to go through the dumpster, they just hand them the food.
The cops are the same. Technically, dumpster diving is illegal in Atlanta. Technically, going onto a property when a business is closed is trespassing. Technically, once something goes into a dumpster it becomes property of the waste disposal company. We heard from some homeless people that the cops do not care. They come if the owners call, but the owners have to press charges. If they see someone going into a dumpster area, they tend not to engage unless it appears something else is going on. One officers even said, if there is hot food in there and someone is willing to get it.
The problem and the solution is and always will be people. When we do something like this, go out in the middle of the night with people who are actually living this way, and then write something up like this the next day, people invariably follow a notable path.
First, we say that it is a shame. Then when we continue with the idea that it is a problem we say that there are solutions in place. Those solutions are not enough. Why? Because of people. When I approach a restaurant and tell them that we will take their food waste they say they are doing it with other organizations (not true) or that it is illegal for them to give their food waste (not true). There are a number of other reasons, and problems, and such that we go through but the problem is that something that is and should be relatively simple is made unbelievable complex and political. A solid 90% of what we do in reclaiming food across the board is the negotiations and politics behind defining the problem or even acknowledging there is one.
We are not done yet. There are going to be many MANY more nights where we go out and see what is going on and show how it all ties in together. If you like hearing about things like this, then go to our Patreon page (www.patreon.com/epochconvergence) and support us
Look for our podcast coming soon!
A lot of things in the world are just statistics and we like it like that because once it leaves our plates, then it goes away. Or if it never reaches our plate, no harm, no foul, right? I wonder how many people are brave enough to do what I did last night. Not because I hung out with a few homeless people and some of them were a little unsavory, but because what I did last night was take an actual look at something that we only talk about, something that is only a statistic. I looked in some dumpsters.I have worked for major hotels, fast food, fine dining, and even as a personal chef. Each job has shown me a different aspect of how we treat our food once it leaves the kitchen. If I could give it a grade overall, I would say Fail.
The problem with restaurants is that they constantly have to produce more fresh food simply because they have to be prepared for guests who might show up. If those guests do not show, that food goes to waste. Whatever food establishment you go into, I can guarantee that there is someone whose job and to a large extent, passion to make sure that as little food goes into that dumpster as possible.
Depending on the kind of restaurant, that could be a hard road to hoe. Let's look at last nights biggest offender...Dunkin Donuts. When you go into a Dunkin' Donuts, most of those iced, stuffed, and or glazed donuts are destined for the dumpster. We found trash bags full of donuts as well as all of those little pink papers they use to hand you those donuts.
Chick-fil-a is the opposite. We spoke with some experts (homeless people) who said that at one point, there was an abundance and there were still some high volume restaurants that would toss a lot of food out if you knew where and when to look (just after closing in large cities like Atlanta. Where we were, there was a medium volume restaurant that closed late.
Starbucks is on the line. Many locations give their food to shelters at the end of the night...thumbs up! On the other side of that some locations are timid and tepid about engaging with the community to do other things. We get a fair amount of coffee grounds from them for our gardens. Still we have not heard of them having the best record of letting homeless people linger. That is another issue that we will go into at another time.
Burger King was the best...kinda...
When you go through the drive through at BK and change your mind or some other mistake is made, it appears that they take the messed up burger and throw it in a bucket. At certain intervals it is weighed to calculate food waste and then, at the end of the night, it is thrown out. BK is open late at night and is staffed by humans. Good humans. If they look out the door as they are going to throw this food out and see someone standing there waiting to go through the dumpster, they just hand them the food.
The cops are the same. Technically, dumpster diving is illegal in Atlanta. Technically, going onto a property when a business is closed is trespassing. Technically, once something goes into a dumpster it becomes property of the waste disposal company. We heard from some homeless people that the cops do not care. They come if the owners call, but the owners have to press charges. If they see someone going into a dumpster area, they tend not to engage unless it appears something else is going on. One officers even said, if there is hot food in there and someone is willing to get it.
The problem and the solution is and always will be people. When we do something like this, go out in the middle of the night with people who are actually living this way, and then write something up like this the next day, people invariably follow a notable path.
First, we say that it is a shame. Then when we continue with the idea that it is a problem we say that there are solutions in place. Those solutions are not enough. Why? Because of people. When I approach a restaurant and tell them that we will take their food waste they say they are doing it with other organizations (not true) or that it is illegal for them to give their food waste (not true). There are a number of other reasons, and problems, and such that we go through but the problem is that something that is and should be relatively simple is made unbelievable complex and political. A solid 90% of what we do in reclaiming food across the board is the negotiations and politics behind defining the problem or even acknowledging there is one.
We are not done yet. There are going to be many MANY more nights where we go out and see what is going on and show how it all ties in together. If you like hearing about things like this, then go to our Patreon page (www.patreon.com/epochconvergence) and support us
Look for our podcast coming soon!
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