I know this topic has come up a few times before, but everything was from years ago and things have changed a bit since then, especially where I live.
My spouse and I have recently cut our monthly grocery bill down to $30 per month (and honestly, could go lower than that if we skipped over some fancy-pants spices and staples). How do we do this you may ask? Some call it dumpster diving, but frankly, we have never actually dived into a dumpster. Instead, we find ourselves opening up compost bins -- these are green bins lined with a compostable plastic-like liner that are filled to the brim with amazing fresh produce -- selecting the items toward the top that are to our liking and biking away with our backpacks and saddlebags stuffed to the brim with our bounty. The majority of these items have very minor bruises or are slightly misshapen. However, there are some that have no visible issues at all and we are forced to conclude that they just simply had too many to fit on their shelves or received a newer shipment.
Most of what we find consists of:
- Bread: Completely perfect day-old bread in any form you can think of. We will find entire bins just full of bagels of any variety you can think of.
- Potatoes: Any type you can think of and TONS of them. Our freezer is currently overflowing with them!
- Bananas Galore: most are ripe and perfect to be eaten immediately, others are best suited for banana bread or freezing, and some have even been green enough to keep for weeks after.
- Pretty much any other form of produce you can think of. We mostly see grapefruit, tomatoes and oranges, though we have scored with pomegranates, strawberries, grapes, bags of lettuce and kale with no visible issues (clearly no one gave them the memo that you can't compost the plastic containers these were in), melons, and more! We have even come across entire containers of hummus
(again, you can't compost plastic, people!)
What we have in our area might not be the same as yours. Our state (Vermont) has recently changed their laws so that by 2020 all grocery stores must compost/donate all food "waste". Most stores have already gotten started and these perfectly clean compost bins that have never touched an ounce of actual trash are typically just sitting behind the grocery stores, begging to be opened and purged of their delicious contents. Oddly enough our local "community-friendly" co-op and health food store have their compost & dumpsters guarded behind a fence and lock and key, but chains like Hannafords & Price Chopper have been great sources of free food for us.
Honestly I'm a total germaphobe, but I don't find this to be disgusting at all. After working in the food industry back in high school, I find these bins to be much more sanitary than most of the processed food that you probably purchase. Plus the compost bins seem to be completely dedicated to certain departments in the store. There will be some with just bread, some with just vegetables, some with just fruit and that one dreaded bin with the salad bar remains (avoid this one).
Even if your local grocery store doesn't compost, they typically follow this same system with bags in the dumpster -- super thick, durable bags will be filled entirely with baked goods or potatoes or bananas. If you open the bag and see something gross, avoid it or throw it back in. You'll be astonished with what you find: Entire bags of apples thrown out because one has a bruise, entire bags of potatoes thrown out because one has an "eye" on it or one has gone slightly soft.
Aside from all the free food, I've noticed a couple other perks of this hobby. First off, it satisfies a certain need to accomplish something. I may have had a terrible day at work and left with my to do list longer than when I went in, but I can gather all the food I need to feed my family in just a few minutes. There's something enjoyable about the hunt of it. Maybe it's our hunter-gatherer origins, but it's super thrilling!
Additionally, I feel like I'm doing something good for the planet. I often come across plastic-covered items that shouldn't be composted and might be overlooked by the composting business. Also, I feel like I'm reducing the food waste in our area. Coming from a poor upbringing, seeing this sort of waste is extremely jarring. My first time going, seeing all the perfect food was extremely upsetting. I couldn't and still can't understand how someone can live with themselves throwing away perfectly good food while their neighbor is having to skip their supper to feed their children. It's something that you hear about on the news and think that it must be happening somewhere else, but not in your backyard. Unfortunately, even with the donations these grocery stores make to the food bank, they still throw away tons of perfect food.
What if you're still grossed out by the idea of getting your food from "trash"? I haven't done this myself, but you could try telling your local grocery store that you've got chickens and you'd love to take some of the food off their hands that they're going to throw away to feed them. Usually if you tell them the food is for you, they won't offer it up to you in fear that you'll sue them if you happen to become ill from anything.
Overall, if you choose to do this, just use your common sense. If something looks bad or smells bad, don't put it in your mouth. When you go home fill the sink up with soapy water and wash off all the produce you get. I've never been sick from food from the dumpster and have yet to hear of anyone getting sick from food from the dumpster. But I've been sick and know plenty of others who have been sick from restaurant food.
Here are a few resources, make sure you know about the legality in your area, though, typically (at least in the US), as long as it isn't behind a lock you're in no danger of getting in trouble. Additionally, if you see a huge amount of one item make sure to do a quick Google search to make sure it's not been recalled due to some contaminate.
https://freegan.info/what-is-a-freegan/freegan-practices/urban-foraging/diving-and-the-law/https://www.recalls.gov/food.htmlLet me know if you have any questions -- I'm happy to answer them. Also let me know if you think I'm a looney and want to know more of my reasoning for why I think this is perfectly healthy. I also have a ton of recipes that we typically make with these free ingredients that are also frugal if you were grocery shopping, so let me know if you'd like to see any of those (I'll admit I'm a "chuck it in a pot" kind of cook so you'll see no exact measurements in my recipes).