Thanks for sharing. For a different take on garbage picking – from people who are not choosing it, but forced to rely on it for food – check out this short film (an oldie but goodie) – it’s commentary on capitalism in general, but through the lens of food (a tomato, specifically).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3AyWcptRx0&feature=related

Enjoy.
Amita

Interesting post. Highlights a true discrepancy in our society. An interesting follow-up post might focus on recommendations for the individual on combating this irony.

Here’s an example on combating the distribution problem creatively. My current employer, Resources for Human Development, in Philadelphia, just launched a weekly produce market in partnership with the City of Philadelphia and local food stores. We’ve made a deal with food stores who cannot use all of the produce they’ve purchased (it’s either too much for their inventory, or it’s too ripe to last the requisite amount of days). It’s CHEAPER for these stores to donate the food to nonprofits like ours, rather than pay to dispose of it. Our nonprofit rents a truck each week to pick up the food from the warehouse, and then we set up shop to sell this food at discounted prices to the community in our parking lot every Monday.

Now here’s the part on the cost. Some years ago, we initiated community currency (basically like monopoly money) called “Equal Dollars” (check out how it works here: http://www.rhd.org/equal.html). People who volunteer to package and sell the produce earn $10 Equal Dollars per shift, which can then be used to pay for 50% of their produce. Each BAG of food costs $1US and 1=$ (equal dollar) — and the bags are massive. For example, I purchased 2 bags of spinach, 5lbs of pre-chopped broccoli, 3 beefsteak tomatoes and a 3lb bag of chopped carrots for $4 and 4=$.

But there’s a catch. There is too much food in each bag to be used by one person, so you have to commit to sharing the food with your community. Fair enough, right? So, for example, every Monday I split my 5LB bag of broccoli 4 ways – some for my roommate, some for my parents, some for my boyfriend, and some for me. And we each pay .25c.

Pretty awesome, huh? And the best part is that this is available to ANYONE in the community — and our organization is located just outside of North Philadelphia, one of most devastated areas of this City, and a place where you simply don’t find stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joes, let alone decent farmers markets.

I’d love to hear other stories from your readers out there. I bet between all of us, we can come up with some pretty innovative stuff. If you want to learn more about =$ or the produce market with the city, just let me know! I think it’s a great model for expansion.

Theresa

This post was mentioned on Twitter by leanpath: RT @NYUReynolds: Stuffed and Starved in America: Why are Food Waste and Food Stamps Simultaneously Peaking? http://bit.ly/7cLiqE...