Going Dumpster Divin’

            Viewing the movie Dive was an eye-opening experience.  The idea that people would actually dive into a dumpster full of smelly garbage in hopes of finding food treasures boggles my mind.  Many people do not fully understand the amount of food wasted until they are hungry and searching for their next meal.  Grocery stores and restaurants waste enough food daily that could feed hundreds.  The amount of food the United States of America wastes in one year could keep small countries fed for several years.  Having been raised on the mentality of cleaning your plate, it bothers me how much food is wasted.  As a child, I was told to clean my plate or there would be no option for dessert and at Grandma’s house you always wanted dessert.  Children in today’s society are too picky when it comes to their food choices and 40% of food waste comes from households.

            Dumpster diving is defined as the practice of searching through dustbins for discarded but still usable or valuable objects such as food or clothes (Dictionary.com).  There are actually websites that give how-to’s on dumpster diving.  I guess it makes sense to have instructions on how to perform the task of actually diving in if you have never done it before.  The fact that they list bringing gloves is funny to me but that is because I am a mysophobic.  I do not like germs therefore gloves wouldn’t be enough to get me into a dumpster (shareable.net).  A quote from a site referenced dumpster diving as follows: “The very name “dumpster diving” makes the nature of the activity pretty clear. It doesn’t hide behind a sanitized euphemism, like, say, “gently used snack gathering.”  “Free food? Honey, ain’t nuthin’ free,” (Adventures of a first-time dumpster diver, Kwak-Hefferan).  There are many people that dumpster dive for the sole purpose of keeping their families fed because they cannot afford to shop the conventional way due to lack of money or government assistance.    Be that as it may, many people will dumpster dive to help out local shelters that feed the hungry on a daily basis by recovering food that would not be donated under normal circumstances. 

Most of the food that grocers throw out is perishable, including fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat, baked goods, and ready-made meals.  Perishable foods are most often thrown away versus being donated because it releases the grocery store from being held liable if someone gets sick.  Food waste will probably always be an unfortunate by-product of the food service and food retail industries. Food recovery is a great way for all types of food businesses to help those in need, and can oftentimes result in tax savings when donated to a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization (Food Waste from Restaurants, Caterers, and Grocery Stores, Jan 03 2013).  With the amount of food wasted by grocery stores, many of our homeless shelters could feed hundreds of people for longer than usual with regular donations.  Most perishables can be frozen and it disintegrates the expiration dates printed on packaging because it time locks the food at its current state.  The statistic from the movie Dive of the amount of wasted food was sad at a staggering 96 billion pounds yearly.  The amount of food that the United States wastes in one year could feed many smaller countries for many years.  The United States is said to be the richest country in the world and yet we waste the most food while many other countries have people dying from starvation.  If we packed up our wasted food for one year, the entire country of Haiti could eat for five years (Dive!). 

Furthermore, children in today’s society should be thankful for the food choices they have in front of them as there are many who go without.  I can recall hearing as a child that I should clean my plate because children in China were starving.  Children are pickier nowadays than they were twenty or more years ago.  Children of the eighties and much earlier were happy to get a healthy meal or less.  I know more children who thumb their noses at vegetables and refuse to eat them.  When I was younger, it was clean your plate or you will just have to be hungry and there would be no snacks.  I can also recall my mom covering my plate and placing it in the refrigerator in case I got hungry later because I refused to eat it the first time around.  Even worse was going to my grandma’s house and having to eat peas in order to get dessert and believe me you wanted dessert at her house.  Children in smaller, poverty stricken countries do not have the luxury of food choices.  They are lucky to get some bread, rice, or crackers and most likely some dirty water depending on where they live.  Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related issues (bread.org).  Based on that number, one child dies every five seconds.  With the food that American children waste, that would not have to happen. 

All things considered, we as Americans can help stamp out hunger.  Dumpster diving can provide food for those who cannot regularly afford it as well as providing donations to shelters or food banks.  Choosing your meals wisely can help alleviate waste in your home by making sure you only prepare enough for the one meal unless you plan on consuming the leftovers and not throwing them away.  I know that we cannot force people or organizations to help but every little bit helps, one person at a time.  Be an example for your children by trying new things and attempting to finish your food so they learn responsibility for their food choices.  If it helps, remind your children that for everything that they throw away there are hungry children in other countries and even as close as your own city.  Helping each be more responsible about our wasteful tendencies in our own homes can reflect outward onto our community.

 

Works Cited

“Adventures of a first-time dumpster diver,” By Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan 12 Jan 2012 at 7:01 p.m.

 http://grist.org/food/2012-01-12-adventures-of-a-first-time-dumpster-diver/

Dive! A Film by Jeremy Seifert, Copyright © 2013 http://www.divethefilm.com/facts-about-food-waste.aspx

"dumpster diving." Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition. HarperCollins Publishers. 12 Mar. 2013. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dumpster diving>.

“Food Waste from Restaurants, Caterers, and Grocery Stores” Jan 03 2013 Flashfood and Food Recovery News  

http://flashfoodasu.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/food-waste-from-restaurants-caterers-and-grocery-stores/

“Global Hunger”, http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/

“How To Dumpster Dive, Eat Free & Fight Waste” by Willie Osterweil, November 7, 2012 at 7:43 a.m. 

http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-dumpster-dive-eat-for-free-and-fight-waste

Journal #5: Dive!

Journal 5 due. Topic: Share your thoughts on the film Dive! to help you narrow down your essay topic.  Would you be willing to dumpster dive?  Have you or someone you know dealt with food shortages or food insecurities?

I honestly do not know if I would ever be desperate enough to dumpster dive as I am a huge mysophobic or otherwise known as a germaphobic.  I am constantly washing my hands or using sanitizer.  If my family ever got to the point where we needed food that bad I would happily send my husband or my nineteen stepson into the dumpster.  My stepdaughter and I would not want anything to do with even touching the dumpster.  After watching the documentary, it did not surprise me that so much food it wasted every day.  The United States is the fattest country in the world and we waste the most food.  The staggering statistic of wasting ninety-six billion pounds of food per year blew my mind, even more so that our waste could feed the entire country of Haiti for five years.  I did not think that grocery stores wasted that much food when it could be donated and frozen to stamp out the expiration date.  The fact that eleven million people go hungry each day saddens me and makes me rethink about portioning meal  prepared to eliminate leftovers that will go into the refrigerator only to be forgotten about then discarded. Preparing and eating smaller, more nutritious portions will help alleviate wasting food and help with a healthy disposition.  Another sad statistic is that forty percent of food waste is from personal homes.  Prepare a meal and take it to a friend or neighbor, share the wealth if you have extra do not throw it out if it can help someone else. The best statement I took from the documentary was "Food is life and should never be wasted."   I do not personally know anyone who has had to even think about dumpster diving.  I have known several who relied on government assistance such as food stamps to provide the food they needed for their families.

The American Dream

The American Dream

                                    The American Dream can mean an array of things depending on with who one is speaking. The American Dream was defined as the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity traditionally held to be available to every American or as a life of personal happiness and material comfort as traditionally sought by individuals in the U.S. (Dictionary.com).  The term most identify in reference to the American Dream is immigration. When the United States was first discovered, many came over as immigrants.  Many immigrants came to the United States and were forced into slavery or indentured servitude to survive.  People from other countries would send younger relatives or elderly family members to the United States to achieve a better quality of life or to save their lives.  However, many immigrants have gained access to the United States illegally. 

Immigrants came from all walks of life and many different countries. Many immigrants came to America to gain a better quality of life but were met with hardships of not being able to find work to support their families.  Men, women and children worked on plantations or in factories as slaves just to ensure food and shelter would be given in return for their work.  Pilgrims were first immigrants in the 1600s and came in search of religious freedoms.  The country’s first immigration station was Ellis Island. On January 1, 1892, the first immigrant processed was Annie Moore, a teenager from County Cork, Ireland.  She had made the nearly two-week journey across the Atlantic Ocean in steerage with her two brothers.  She later raised a family on New York City’s Lower East Side.  In the 17^th through the 19^th centuries, hundreds of thousands of African American slaves came to America against their will.  (“United States Immigration Before 1965.”)

            A guest speaker, named Mauricio Garcia, which I recently heard was an immigrant from El Salvador in 1983. His family sent him to live in this country at the age of 17 with his 16 year old brother and cousin.  In the early eighties, El Salvador was ravaged by a bitter civil war.  Mauricio stated that the life expectancy for boys aged 16-24 was very low. The war is why his parents chose to send him and his companions away.  Being sent to America saved their lives.  In the journal titled “The Air War in El Salvador” it states, the war became so deadly that President Jimmy Carter cutoff US economic and military aid. As a result of being thrust into America, Mauricio struggled to fit in and learn to speak English.  He claimed, “Teachers who teach English are Saints.”  Also stated was, “Learning another language messes with your confidence.”   Mauricio came to America as a scared, hard-nosed, did not want to learn anything and became a man with dreams and ambitions.  His first job was working in an animal hospital as a volunteer and was excited when he was promoted to “shoveling crap.”  Mauricio exhibits the ultimate American Dreamer in my eyes.

           

Incidentally, human trafficking and illegal immigration happen every day. Most of Americans cannot fathom the number of cases.  An estimated 14,000 to 18,000 immigrants are illegally brought in the United States every year.  Trafficking is the recruitment and transportation of persons within or across boundaries by force, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploiting them economically.  Victims are sometimes forced to perform lewd acts in return for promises and often those promises are not kept.  Some forced into inexpensive labor in return for letting them stay in the United States. (Trafficking in Persons Report, 2007. U.S. Department of State.) Many illegal immigrants will do anything that is asked of them to avoid being returned to their home country.  Deportation back to their home countries could lead to imprisonment or death.  One of the things the illegal immigrants are looking for is a better way of life and they all want to live the American Dream. 

            In essence, immigrants whether legal or illegal are all looking for a new start in their lives or that of their families.  There is a reason they choose to leave their home countries and move to the United States. We are the home of the free and the brave.  Mauricio Garcia said it so well, “The two best things about living in the United States are Bacon and Milky Way.”  Stop caring what other people think of you and start living your own American Dream.  If someone tells you that you cannot do something, prove them wrong.  There are lessons to be learned everywhere you turn and you have the choice to learn from them or not.  Another phrase from Mauricio Garcia, “We become really good listeners when we are out of options.”  Try listening for a change and you may be surprised what you will learn and it may just help you live your dream. 

  Works Cited

"American dream." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 26 Feb. 2013. <Dictionary.com

            http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/american dream>.

“Find your Purpose, Live Your Passion” Mauricio Garcia, http://www.facebook.com/events/310659692284633/

“Human Trafficking – Exploitation of Illegal Aliens, http://www.fairus.org/issue/human-trafficking-exploitation-of-illegal-aliens#end Trafficking in

Persons Report, 2007. U.S. Department of State.

“The Air War in El Salvador”, by Dr. James S. Corum (Major, US Army Reserve), Aerospace Power Journal, Summer 1998.

http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_158.shtml

“United States Immigration Before 1965.” 2013. The History Channel website. Feb 26 2013, 11:08 http://www.history.com/topics/united-states-

immigration-to-1965.