Gothamist sent a video crew out with dumpster diving comedian Jeff Seal on a trip through NYC's nighttime streets, in which he raided the trashbags of the priciest, most upscale grocers and packaged-food restaurants in Manhattan.
As anyone who's spent a night in a big city's trash would know, Seal found more food than he could haul away, perfectly good, not even expired according to the largely fictional expiry dates on the packaging. So much food that he had to edit much of it out because it was so boring and repetitive to watch him pull loaf after loaf of bread out of the trash.
A few places (Pret a Manger, Trader Joes) give their extra food to food pantries and shelters, but Whole Foods, in keeping with their overall character as the mustache-twirling, union-busting, price-jacking hellhole of quality groceries, puts all of theirs through a trash compactor, just to make extra sure than no one gets any free kale or kale byproducts.
As Seal notes in the video, "You know you're living in abundance when you can throw away food that someone else threw away." Don't call it "dumpster diving"; call it "Locally-Sourced Reclaimed Food Curation."
During his research into the statistics of food waste in America, Seal says he discovered that "I am just one in a long line of other self-satisfied white guys who have made videos/articles/art projects etc. about dumpster diving for food. I was reminded of the phrase, 'Only a rich man can afford to look poor.'"
Video: Never Pay For Food Again In NYC
[Jeff Seal/Gothamist]
(via Metafilter)
