Poverty question:

[cliffordu]

Have you ever had to feed yourself out of a dumpster?

Has anyone related to you had to???

[notadmblnd]

1. No, but there was a time that my mom would send food home with me

[skooooo]

5. What does that mean?

She sent food home with you? Didn't you live with her? Where was home?

[notadmblnd]

6. No, I didn't live with her. I had my own home

couldn't afford both rent and eating.

[zipplewrath]

2. My brother

He slept in a storage unit, bathed in the sink and showered on a beach. Lasted about 3 months. Many of us offered to help but he wouldn't take it. I was never quite sure how he was feeding himself, but he did lose a bit of weight at the time. Claimed the whole time he was "experimenting with minimalism".

[cliffordu]

11. So he finally stopped volunteering...It's hard work to live like that - and anymore there's plenty

of competition - more all the time....Some places lock the dumpsters so you can't get to the goods.

I just visited some of my old haunts in PDX and talked to some friends, who just seem to keep winding up out there....

[Lyric]

3. Yes.

Once when I was pregnant, and four times since then. We ate out of a fast-food restaurant's trash for four days when I was 6 weeks pregnant, waiting for Rhythm to get a paycheck. The next two times were during the Christmas season of 2002--we took expired bread and veggies from the trash of the grocery store where my Mom worked, because times were hard, the food banks were closed, and my Food Stamps hadn't come in the mail yet (this was before EBT.) The last two times happened about two years ago. We had a hard, hard summer, and Rhythm had lost her job. We sent LyricKid to my Mom's house, and Rhythm fed us for about a week by driving up to the local Olive Garden (her former place of employment) and checking the trash after closing time. She used to work there at night, so she knew exactly what got thrown away that was still edible and what was not.

It was humiliating.

[cliffordu]

12. s a lot tougher to be absolutely destitute in this country than most anyone imagines,

because I'll bet you were invisible to EVERYONE except your immediate family....

I'm glad you are alright now -

[Burma Jones]

4. Indirectly

I was broke and knew of a restaurant that threw away bottles which could be redeemed for deposits. I regularly picked up 5 or 10 bucks to buy groceries.

I had a Cousin that spent some time homeless while on Heroin, I assume he ate from trash. He pulled his life together, got a BA, got engaged and was subsequently killed in an Automobile Accident.....

[izquierdista]

7. Had to or chose to?

I've never been in a situation where I had to, but often when I was walking past a dumpster, there were items that were just too good to pass up. I got a nice jacket, clothes hangers, furniture, tomatoes and cantaloupes that you just had to cut the bad spot off of, and I don't know why anyone would pay money to buy a cardboard box. I'm not humiliated to do a little dumpster diving, the only downside is that it's hit-or-miss if you will find something you can use.

After traveling in some third world countries, I can definitely say that the stuff Americans throw away would definitely not go to the landfill in most other countries.

[cliffordu]

13. I was thinking had to....

[MineralMan]

8. Not directly, but in the early '70s,

I earned about $200/wk by dumpster diving, then selling the items at a local swap meet on Sundays. It was a University town, and the dumpsters around student housing, both on and off campus were treasure troves.

At the end of every semester, the haul went up dramatically, and the surplus helped during more lean times.

About an hour a day dumpster-diving and 8 hours on Sundays. I also furnished the house I was renting, and had my pick of TVs and sound equipment through that source.

[cliffordu]

15. HAH!!! I remember fat times in Eugene, just campus and trolling the Frat dumpsters

for stereo stuff - Got a really GREAT Nakamichi cassete deck out of one.....that was years before I had to hit the food dumpsters....

[bigwillq]

9. No one in my family that I know of.

It's so sad when a person has to do that. I can't even imagine. :hug:

[cliffordu]

16. Well, I drank myself into it, so there wasn't any real excuse -

except that I needed to go there to sober up.

[uppityperson]

10. Yes. Do you know about the bread dumpster behind uptown bakery?

My kid & friends bring bread home from there all the time.

As far as your question, I have supplemented my food via dumpsters but have been able to survive without them. Cousin lived out of dumpsters for a while though.

[cliffordu]

17. Yep - I'll out myself by admitting my sister owns that bakery with frank

I have no association with it other than that, but yep - I knew about the dumpster...


I get the feeling that there will be a lot more people learning the finer points of the hobby real soon....

[uppityperson]

27. Whoah! Very cool

maybe I shouldn't have told you my kid gets bread from there. Huh. Someday, we do have to meet.

[cliffordu]

28. Your kid could probably ask and get it on the way to the dumpster.....

cut out the middle man, so to speak....

They give MOST of the day old to the food bank.

As I said, I have nada to do with the bakery.....my family is very......interesting.....

[uppityperson]

34. but that would take all the fun out of it!

Sounds interesting family

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Nope. But, when I was a kid I was sent to beg for food.

And, my mother shoplifted it plenty of times. And, when she was caught, several times, I was to look sad and waiflike so they'd let her off the hook.

It worked.

There's is nothing romantic, noble, or uplifting about about being hungry poor.

[cliffordu]

19. Nope. There sure the hell ain't.

[readmoreoften]

18. Yes, we fed half our neighborhood out of a Whole Foods Dumpster until they welded it shut.

Organic Baby Spinach in slightly crushed plastic containers--cars full.
Over 100 vegan frozen dinners from deep freeze
Over 100 organic beef and chicken paninis from deep freeze
Kashi Pizzas
Perfectly fine overstocked Bananas
Still deep frozen cookie dough
Cereal about to expire in a few months
Pounds of nuts

I don't know of a single person who ever got sick.


Then they welded the dumpsters shut and padlocked the top. I don't know a single customer they gained from the act. I know, I know.... "legal liability."

[cliffordu]

21. The same shit Safeway pulled some years back....

[juno jones]

20. Sort of.

I sometimes ate relatively intact food off plates during my dishwasher days. Surprising how much food goes untouched and subsequently discarded. I got fired once from a country club for taking leftover food destined for the dumpsters. I was feeding my roomates who were also living on part-time minimum wage (@ $3.35 hr.) in the early 80's.

One of my rationales for working in food was the knowledge I would never go hungry.

I've had a couple of friends have to do that, doesn't sound horribly pleasant.

[cliffordu]

22. I ate tons of pre-owned steaks at a place I worked....Drank a shitload of

world class wines by the half glass left over from dinner - I'm talking about wines that were hundreds of dollars a bottle in 1973.....

It helped hone my taste for Spanada and Mad Dog later in life....

[juno jones]

32. I remember one delightful shift with a 3/4 full bottle of Dom

bus a table, sip, waters, sip.

Would make bussing a far more enjoyable process. :D

I've had the fortune to be a fine dining cook. Scallops, Lamb chops, steaks, it's amazing what people simply throw away. The fact was a revelation which has continued to inform my life and actions for over twenty years now.

[cliffordu]

35. Yep - I just got a bicycle that is priceless (to me) - in almost mint contition -

It's an older mountain bike - from before everyone went to racing geometry -


I just loaded it down with 70 lbs of my crap and rode it for a little over 550 miles -

The most comfortable I've ever been on a bicycle....

Got it from a guy who got it out of a dumpster. Perfect.

And it's trash to most cyclists out there. Specially the carbon fiber crowd......

[InvisibleTouch]

23. Not feed, but...

...I have done my share of dumpster diving for re-useable items and scrapmetal to sell to recycling centers.

[hamsterjill]

24. I've been lucky and I know it.

I've never had to worry about food. And I'm thankful for that.

And I'm sorry that I live in a country where there is hunger and homelessness when there is no excuse for there to be hunger or homelessness.

[cliffordu]

25. It is inexcusable....

[Liberal_in_LA]

26. no

[vadawg]

29. never out of a dumpster but my whole family has eaten from throw outs many times

especially in winter when the takings from the fields and forests were bad.

[guitar man]

30. lived in a van for 6 months

don't remember literally eating out of a dumpster but I remember scrounging for food where I could. Yay Reagan!! :grr:

[juno jones]

33. I did 6 months in a van in the Reagan years as well.

:fistbump:

Lived in condemned apartments too. That $3.35 an hour made some fuckers very rich.

[RadiationTherapy]

31. Yes. Fed myself and a friends family for several weeks.

Now all the stores have "caps" on their dumpsters. NO FREE FOOD FOR YOU!!