Random Tue May 20 2008
I'm as Free as a Freegan Now
Tonight on the news I saw a feature about freegans, the artsy-looking folks who scour dumpsters for perfectly edible food among the garbage. The journalist went with a freegan (who looked like he came straight from an Umphrey McGee's show) to a dumpster to find some choice eats; they walked off with a few loaves of french bread and some produce. I couldn't tell where they were, but I got looking around the interwebs and came across a resource that lists the best places in Chicago to freeganize: apparently Trader Joe's is the choicest place to scour, and Stanley's reportedly gives away produce each morning. While it's difficult to understand the edginess to freeganism (far less fortunate people have been doing this for decades, and the saved money these freegans are accumulating will likely go towards Pitchfork Festival weekend passes), it made for a softer television newscast and hopefully make viewers question the real shelf/fridge life of their discarded food.
- Robyn Nisi
jen Tue May 20 2008, 11:52AM +
1) pitchfork 3-day passes are already sold out.
2) anyone diving behind stanley's would only get rotten food. my stuff has rotted the day after i've brought it home and put it in the fridge.
3) did it make for a softer newscast? i thought it made for a spectacle of the people who do this, and basically an free shot for the anchors to mock them.
Beth Tue May 20 2008, 12:02PM +
I'm seconding the rottenness of Stanley's produce. Mine went bad within a few days, and I spent time picking out the freshest seeming fruit.
Robyn Tue May 20 2008, 3:24PM +
Pitchfork passes sold out? Unbelievable.
I thought NBC5's story didn't seem to mock it too much--if anything, it was Warner "Mr. Mispronunciation" Saunders who made the sneer after the story was over. Just my opinion...
jen Tue May 20 2008, 4:45PM +
Yeah, but the look on Allison's face even announcing it... Rob what-his-name who actually did the story was fine, it was the nightly anchors who presented it that tainted it.