About two weeks ago I went to a short talk by one of the founders of FareShare, a Melbourne based organization that rescues 'to be thrown out' food and prepares it to be served to people in need. The commercial and industrial sector in Victoria alone throws out 140,000 tons of food, per year! Combine that with the ~$600 worth of food that the average Australian throws out each year and we've got a lot of unnecessary waste piling up! FareShare has rescued nearly 97 tons of food this year and given away over 327,000 meals. Woohoo.
Last night I had the opportunity to be on the up close and personal side of food waste.
At 12:30am I texted Christine*, a friend of the urban wwoof hosts I am staying with in Melbourne: I'm near the 67 tram stop, hopefully I'm in the right spot?
12:31am: c u in 2
I let out a nervous giggle, glancing around at the suburban strip mall to my right and the lanes of nearly deserted highway to my left, feeling like I was about to take part in some serious crime-making.
True to her word, Christine pulled up in a black van two minutes later. "Kelsey?" "Christine?" I hopped in the front seat. Talking with Christine came easily and only stopped when we pulled up along side a Coles Supermarket. "You have a headlight?" "Mmhmm." "Gloves too?" "Yep."
We walked casually past the lit up staff room straight for "the golden bin." Aptly named for the treasure trove of edible food resting inside. "Um, so, do you have a typical procedure for going about this?" I asked. Christine explained how one person would go around the edge of the dumpster, handing anything worth saving to the other person to put in a box. Then she'd climb inside and dig deep, salvaging as much as possible.
As she leaned over the edge and stated rustling past the cardboard and black bags full of trash, I stood on my tiptoes to get a peak at what lay inside. Soon enough, Christine was handing me all sorts of items. Bananas, barely a day past being perfectly ripe. Dozens of small potato chip bags. Lindt chocolate bars only a couple weeks past their expiration date, but otherwise fine. Seemingly fine bags of pasta and lentils. Several plastic wrapped organic pieces of squash and pumpkin that would need to be eaten pretty soon. Packaged avocados. Biscuits. Crackers. Tins of fruit and vegetables. Towels. A Pinnochio DVD. Toothpaste.
Over the next 3.5 hours we drove to approximately 7 dumpsters, backtracking to some that had workers around on our first try, collecting enough food to feed 15 people for a week, at least. Every bin felt a bit like Christmas morning, not knowing what goodies would be inside. It was both fascinating and appalling.
Now, groggy after only 4 hours of sleep and a belly full of an urbanly gleaned lunch, I feel grateful for having had the opportunity to dive into the underground culture of sustainability. Every day since stepping foot on this Australian land, and many before on other continents, I am reminded of the myriad of ways we can each tweak our lives and let go of misguided judgements to build community and lessen our negative impacts on the planet.
*name changed, just in case
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helllloooo! i like the idea of rescuing food! i've gotten to a point where i get pretty upset when i see something useful thrown away--food, nonfood, etc. it's good to see some of that put toward a good cause. i think something similar in the states would be a good thing considering how many grocery stores, convenience stores, etc. we have here!
ReplyDeleteit sounds like you are having a blast down there! yay! hope all is well!