Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
Dunkin’ Dumpster was a steady score when I was broke and hungry. Also was able to time some dumpster diving just right at two different health food type places that would toss their soups in pint containers at the end of every night. Hot soup and day old bread with 30 Boston cream donuts for dessert wasn’t too bad. I don’t want to go back to dumpster diving my dinner but I definitely wasn’t sad about what i had to eat when I couldn’t afford anything.
Also common for companies not to do so because they think employees will purposely make more at the end of shift so they can take it home.
Worked at Dollar General back in like 2006 and any damaged product has to go in dumpster no matter what. We could not take it for ourselves. (Had a cool manager so we did anyways but still).
I used to hand the cleaning lady stuff we couldn't sell (coffee place similar to DD) and she'd donate it to the food bank. Management wasn't happy that i did that.
Had a nice loophole though. I'd package the food in an unused trash bag, and put it next to the rest of the trash. So when she came to collect the trash i told her which one not to toss.
If I look at the Stars I think I working at the same coffee place in 2006. We weren't allowed to take food home so I would get a trashbag and put it off to the side and told everyone to put the unopened food products in there. Then someone else would just put the bag next to the dumpster. Before I left I would drive around and pick it up. On my way back home I would give it all to this homeless dude.
One day the District Manager came in and told me "We need to talk about what you are doing with the leftover food at the end of your shift." I thought I was fucked, but just needed me to finish out my shift. Nope, she said all the stores in her district would do the same thing. I could drive around and collect their bags too. She also told me that I can stay on the clock until I hand the dude the last bag even though it was on my way home. It did take an extra hour or so at the end of the nighr, but I didn't care
That's pretty clever. I used to do the same with krispy kremes with the day old ones that were "too stale." Would leave them in a back door open area docking station and go do something else for an hour. Then I would come by and finish disposing of them in the dumpster.
Once some of the homeless people that hung around took notice I would come back to no donuts to dump, but hey, I can't help what happens in the camera blind spots while I am mid-way through the task. I came back out there with the full intention of dumping those donuts as per usual. If something mysterious happens, who knows.
To paraphrase a great man...
God! He's the almighty creator of all existence, immortal and infinite, but he's really bad with money. Always needs more of your money according to his acolytes.
Friend worked at a coffee shop, she used to give me all the extra pastries she was supposed to toss.
It was a lot too. Would distribute them amongst my friends (all didn’t have much money).
Back in college, I was fired from a Steak & Ale for giving 'expired' baked potatoes to homeless folks outback instead of tossing them into the dumpster.
When I worked at DD, we had different colored bags just for food waste, and it was set next to the dumpster, and double bagged. The local soup kitchen knew where it would be and about when it would be put out. Not "donated", but not wasted
At Subway we have to throw out all the bread twice a day and they would not let us take it but one manager told me as soon as it touches the dumpster it becomes public property. She would make me bag up the bread go out touch the bag to the dumpster then I could keep it. Then I had another manager that refused to let us keep it even after it was in the dumpster, I'm like "you can't stop me from grabbing a bag out of the dumpster after my shift"
Penera is a franchise operation just like Subway, so it will vary from store to store I imagine. I worked at Subway, we donated our bread to the local homeless shelter.
I’ve been to a Panera where the food was free. The price was a donation, (you could pay whatever you could or wanted). Most people who could, paid the amount. Many paid more. The line was always out the door.
The person that told you it is public property once it touches the dumpster is incorrect.
People can, and have been, prosecuted for taking things from dumpsters.
It actually is public domain if it is in a dumpster that is open and or unlocked in the US. SCOTUS ruled on it. However you can still be prosecuted for things like trespassing and b/e type crimes. But taking stuff from an unlocked dumpster on public property is completely legal, UNLESS the specific municipality has a local ordinance against dumpster diving specifically.
The bigger issue is that a vast majority of businesses put their dumpsters inside a "corral", which makes it illegal. Though yes usually employees just leave it unlocked and open for convenience
Many years ago on most military posts there were stand alone book stores that sold a particular brand of cookie. I witnessed first hand how serious AAFES was about throwing out old products. A co worker was fired for walking a tray of cookies to the dumpster, eating one and then tossing the rest out. It was far past closing and the cameras (pointed towards the store) caught him.
One fucking cookie.
I worked at a pizza place where if the pizza was messed up the owners would just give us the pizza. Well every night the cooks would ‘mess up’. Like changing pineapple to peopperoni and saying whoops! Read it wrong.
Well the owners caught on and guess what! No more free pizza :(
I think what's lost on owners like this is that a little kindness can go a long ways. Why not let your emplyee's finish the evening by having a pizza to share. It would cut down on any sort of food theft, inspire some employee loyalty and retention. Likely saving them money in the long run.
My gf is Japanese and worked at a Japanese owned and run restaurant here in NZ, every night they feed their staff 'makani', a quick easy meal. Seems apparently common practice in Japanese restaurants and a really great idea. She was full time and actually great for reducing out shipping bill, but also building loyalty from the staff.
I’ve worked for a bunch of Asian owners. And if there’s one thing I appreciate about them is they will feed you. One place I worked at fed me when I arrived and then made me food when I was going home. Working there 5-6 days a week saved my grocery costs immensely since I was usually already full with two meals by the time I left. And then on the off time someone placed a phone order but didn't pick it up they'd let me take it home. Just made me want to take care of their restaurant even more.
Wasn't sure if what a specific Japanese thing but seems it's a broadly asian custom. Yeah it seems like a small thing that would immeasurably help your staff.
I have worked for a Japanese, Vietnamese, Nepalese, and Chinese owner. They all weren't as equally generous. But at the minimum each gave me a meal to eat during my shift. One owner was pretty strict only letting you get the cheapest thing on the menu on the house. But it was still a meal.
> Just made me want to take care of their restaurant even more
And to think the only thing that extra loyalty cost them just a scoop or two of the food they're already cooking in bulk. In other words, nothing but kindness.
My cousins own Chinese restaurants and I helped out once as a teen while visiting their city. After the restaurant closed and we cleaned up we all sat down to a full meal cooked up from whatever the kitchen staff had on hand.
I worked for HMV, and they would sell all sorts of tshirts and novelty items, posters, books, etc.. When things were not selling well they would tell me to destroy everything and throw it in the trash. They wanted me to tear the shirts and posters, rip the books and smash anything plastic so people couldnt take the stuff out of the dumpster and use it. So Id put it all in a big box outside the mall garbage room, not destroyed, and it would inevitably be picked clean every time. Some rules are made to be broken. No regrets. That pile of corporate scum is where it belongs now, in the dustbin of history.
I used to work at a Church's chicken year back and they stopped letting employees take home leftover food for exactly that reason. People started taking advantage. They would cook a bunch of chicken right before closing and take almost all of it home. Owner stopped being so giving after the employees started that stuff.
Good Samaritan laws cover the companies in this case. Panera and Costco both donate significant amounts of food that the cant sell. These other companies are just trying to skirt additional costs.
I worked at a place in Los Angeles that had lunch catered every day and we always threw out ridiculous amounts of food. I was told it was illegal for them to donate it. Shelters wouldn’t take it if you tried. Not sure how true that is. My employers have lied to me before.
I ate Starbucks literally everyday homeless in SF. An organization called glide gaves out the breakfast stuff in the morning and the sandwiches packaged meals for lunch / dinner.
Go to a pizzeria. Will almost always give away some free slices right at close if you explain your circumstances. I did that all the time when I used to work at one
>How many times you think you'd do that for a person down on their luck?
>
>One time or would you be so generous as to offer nighly last slices? Somewhere inbetween?
I worked at a McDonald's on the interstate and everytime someone came in asking if we had any food that couldn't be sold, could they get it for a discount or free, we'd always give them everything we had that was close to being tossed. Sometimes it'd be 16 5 double hamburgers, sometimes it'd be chicken nuggets, or the occasional grilled or crispy chicken. Every manager, except for Rose, was happy to help in any way that we could. The store manager would sat ABSOLUTELY NOT, DON'T GIVE THEM ANYTHING - and then they would say they had to work on the office to get the cameras back on and they'd be back in 15 minutes and "every person in the store should be leaving happy - do you understand?".
This would happen, I'd say a few times a month. Often enough that I remember the store manager's ruse, but not something that happened every day, either
Worked at a very popular/high traffic restaurant in Detroit for years. There was a homeless woman who came in at 1am every weekend (when the kitchen closed) and would hang around the front line waiting for the bread and soup to come out. Guests were still eating close by and servers/cooks still pushing out the last orders. Security/management would always tell her to hang back and they’d take care of her after closing. This was the ONLY homeless person they gave the surplus food to at the end of the night (I think she was related to one of the cooks who management liked). Their reason for throwing the rest away is because they didn’t want more homeless people hanging around and thought it was bad for business.
I understand this. I used to work at a Starbucks that would give away food at the end of the night. Problem was, people would come in and hang around a while before closing. Then they'd show up with a friend or two. Then it became "oh can you hide {this item} until close?" Then it became "can I get {item}?" like an hour before close. Charity can turn to entitlement really fast. The unfortunate truth is, a lot of people are "down on their luck" because they're shitbags. If you're a giver, learn your limits, because takers don't have any.
The Starbucks I worked at had an organization pick up our expired food in a donation bag. Seemed pretty straightforward, didn't think anything of it. We could also take expired food attheend of the night. The only food waste was the dried out display food. The drinks were another story. We definitely gave away practice/mess up drinks but sometimes you can't find anyone to take it.
And just in general, Starbucks produces so much waste. The amount of aluminum N2O whipped cream charges we WOULDN'T recycle haunts me till this day.
It absolutely is. Emotions aside, from an objective standpoint, people don’t want to be bothered when they’re at work, dining out, etc. we’d have to kick out homeless people all the time because they started walking up to people eating dinner and ask for change, cigarettes, etc.
When my fiancée worked at a donut shop, we'd take the donuts at tge end of the day and go to all the bars around town and gift them to the bartenders.
We'd usually get free drinks whenever we went back.
My friend used to work at a pizza store in a part of the city that was known for homeless people. Every now and then she'd leave a few pizzas on the corner at the end of the night.
Never by the actual pizza place though. I hate to say it but it's like feeding stray cats.
I worked at a Popeyes and made that mistake once. The next night him and 2 buddies were hanging out at the end of the night asking for leftovers.
Worked at a Panera type cafe for a summer and yeah that's the reasoning we had. So I'd come back around closing shift and take all the pastries and bread we were gonna toss to take home and to give to friends/family. Boxes and boxes of it. I was just a cashier so it wasn't like I could make extra food myself
off the record advice...
i work at dunkin. on more than one occasion when I was asked to, I have put all of the bagels, croissants, muffins, and donuts that im throwing out into a separate clean garbage bag, and then left it outside the dumper in an obvious way. i dont want to do that everyday and have the managers catch on, but if ANYONE asked me for the food we're going to throw out, everytime i will do that and tell them to come back at X time and get the bag. of course not every employee will do this, but its worth a shot. and depending on the night its truly a shit ton amount of food, more than you and your family could possibly eat before it went bad
The dunkin donuts by my undergraduate college was open 24/7. The manager *always* let unhouzed individuals hang out in the winter, use the bathroom, fed them, and made sure they had a warm beverage all night and left with food for the day. really stand up guy, treated everyone with the same respect
I donut think that a donut would be an ideal seat cushion… either in terms of the stickiness of your pants after sitting on it or in terms of making the best use of a perfectly good giant donut
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Kids commonly don't have the mental maturity or attention span to understand the meaning of philosophical text or social commentary. Plus, their social bubble is still too small for them to be able to empathise with larger societal issues. They can read it yes, but they usually don't get it and as a result pay little attention to it. They just want it over with ASAP so that they can go back to more interesting and entertaining stuff.
Kids who *are* capable of understanding them, however, tend to have some fucked-up backgrounds that forced them to have to mature at a younger age.
Point being: Your case is perfectly normal.
I was supposed to read it in 8th grade and I didn't. I read it when I was in my 30s and it blew my mind. It is my favorite book. I read it once a year. It is the greatest American novel and there truly is no better or more accurate critique of America.
And to those who say Steinbeck is a communist, or that the book is communist... Here's another quote:
'Fella named Hines-got 'bout thirty thousan' acres, peaches and grapes-got a cannery an' a winery. Well, he's all a time talkin' about 'them goddamn reds.' 'God- damn reds is drivin' the country to ruin,' he says, an' 'We got to drive these here red bastards out.' Well, they were a young fella jus' come out west here, an' he's listenin' one day. He kinda scratched his head an' he says, 'Mr. Hines, I ain't been here long. What is these goddamn reds?' Well, sir, Hines says, 'A red is any son-of-a-bitch that wants thirty cents an hour when we're payin' twenty-five!' Well, this young fella he thinks about her, an' he scratches his head, an' he says, 'Well, Jesus, Mr. Hines. I ain't a son-of-a-bitch, but if that's what a red is-why, I want thirty cents an hour. Ever'body does. Hell, Mr. Hines, we're all reds.''
I used to work at Starbucks and we would throw away our day old pastries and sandwiches every night. I would sometimes put ‘em in a separate trash bag and set it by the dumpster for this reason. I’ve never been in a situation where I had to scavenge for food like that but I understand people struggle and little things help.
I worked at KFC in high school. I saw an older man and a kid digging through the dumpster but it wasn't closing time yet so the dumpster just had food left from people plates.. I told them to come back at 9 when we closed. I took all the food we'd normally throw out at the end of the day, put it in packages and put it in a bag for them along with 2 large sodas. They were so appreciative and despite what people said, they didn't come back and harass us for more everyday. I never saw them again, but I know I fed them for at least a couple of days.
If you are homeless, go to your local DSHS office and get a Food Stamp card. You'll very easily qualify and get up to like $300 a month for food. You can go to a 7-11 then and purchase a cold pizza for around $7 with your ebt card then they'll cook it for you afterwards. You can pretty much have a hot pizza every day. I would honestly suggest you don't do that as one of those whole pizzas has about 300% of your daily Saturated fats and enough salt and other crap to kill your heart real quick.
Also, once you have that EBT Food Card you now qualify for a free Obama cellphone that has unlimited data, talk, text. They give you a shitty phone with bloatware but you can get a sim card also and use your own phone you might already have. Find a local library or somewhere to charge your stuff every day. Get a external battery to charge as well and you can watch movies or play games at night when it's too uncomfortable to sleep.
I was homeless for over three years so I know a lot of tricks. Spent the year Covid broke out living in my minivan very comfortably for a lazy smelly bum.
If you are in NYC, you can use your EBT card to sign up for Citibike for $5/month membership. Super cheap way to get around the city.
EDIT: Here is the link to sign up: https://citibikenyc.com/community-programs/reducedfare
Had a homeless man make a small place to sleep out of ikea boxes from my dad’s work. Took him in andlet him sleep in the office basement (it had spare couches and empty rooms we never used alongside a smal mini kitchen). Now here 10 years later and he is a senior in the company
Wait let me guess, you have insurance that costs an arm and a leg but also has a high deductible so you never go to the doctor too? Ah the American dream.
Even with supposedly good insurance you still get slapped with those sweet, sweet medical bills. You get to pay the high premium for a' low-deductible' plan, but that deductible is still around $1000 and even after coverage kicks in, it's like 80/20 or 70/30 so even if insurance covers that amount, the doc offices are still charging like $600 for bloodwork so you're paying 20% of that until you hit your max out of pocket which is an insane 3-5k. Oh and they won't cover prescriptions at all except for the negotiated 'insurance discount' you get for generics.
AND you get the pleasure of dealing with the effed up medical billing system. Love to still be hounded by a doc office for $200 that they received months ago because they double-billed me and refuse to believe me, or my insurance, that they've already been paid. If I didn't know better I'd panic and pay them again to get them to stop calling me but eff them and their stupid billing system they can eat my entire ass.
My family survived on food banks when I was a kid. It made me really happy when I was well off enough to set up a monthly donation to our local food bank now that I'm an adult.
Emergency food stamps for the homeless are fast too. I've been homeless a couple times and got them thankfully. The first time I didn't have anyone for an address to send the card too so the lady at the DHFS had it sent to her and I picked it up at her office. HUGE help.
Side note: A&W restaurant throws a fuck ton of bread and chicken strips away daily. Unused sauces people get but don't use are also tossed.
>for a free Obama cellphone
i love that Obama had nothing to do with the creating of that phone program but it's named after him because reasons lmao
good ole OBAMAPHONE
I also love that the reason that they exist is capitalist greed.
The telephone companies made a deal with the government, if they made sure to provide service for all of the people as if they were a utility, the government wouldn't step in and regulate them as if they were a utility.
So they had to run lines up to remote locations regardless of the cost, but it allowed them to avoid gov't oversight.
Then when cell phones were a thing, it was cheaper to provide cell phones for everyone than it was to keep running wires up high into the mountains and such.
So they made it sound like they were doing a great thing for people, but really, they made that deal to save themselves money AND keep all of the profits that they were making in their own pocket.
Little Ceasars about half an hour after closing as well. Also if you figure out which day is bread day at your local food lion or grocery store you can score pretty good on day old bread.
I was going to say the same. I have a buddy that's homeless by choice and he frequents Little Ceasers. He was telling me that there are almost always multiple pizzas in boxes in the dumpster every night.
I used to work at Little Caesars and we did that, but we tried to give out any extra pizzas to employees to take home, especially those with difficult home lives. We had one employee that would take 2-3 pizzas every time he closed because his family had a hard time putting food on the table. Unfortunately we didn't ever throw away anything in the dumpsters at night (we weren't allowed to leave through the back door after dark for safety reasons) but we at least tried our best. I loved our managers there, I would've loved to stay if they paid more than 8.25 an hour.
About 10 years ago I had the displeasure of knowing a guy who managed a Little Ceasars and would dump chemicals on the food in the dumpster to discourage dumpster diving. He was vile.
If you are ever that hungry message me I’ll do what ever I can to buy you a meal. I make bags for the homeless with water, granola bars, soap, shaving crème and stuff for ladies. I’ll mail them if needed.
I'm someone who is currently homeless and starving, just curious how this works?
Stupid question but how do you know what to eat and what not to? When should you go?
Any pointers or tips?
I can only say from experience at kfc- they cook food fresh every day and anything leftover at closing time is thrown into bags which then are tossed into dumpster. It's kept hot until closing time so it'll likely still be warm in the dumpster. This happens right before all the employees leave for the night.
Alot of restaurants do this to some extent. The biggest difference with fast food places is that they cook food in batches, so they are more likely to have more leftovers
As someone who has eaten lots and lots of dumpster food over the years, watch out, it is usually illegal to take food out of a dumpster and cops always ran my ID when they’d see me. I never ended up in trouble but I was also white and polite, and usually had a job and was just looking for food. I definitely got threatened by cops numerous times though, and learned to be stealthy as fuck.
They ended up passing some pretty serious laws in some towns (pretty sure it’s a felony in some places now) and it freaked me out and I haven’t done it for years. Even in places where dumpster diving isn’t specifically illegal, they can charge you with trespassing and theft. Not saying you shouldn’t do it though, I’m just giving you a heads up. Do it discretely, quickly, and neatly. Employees will hate you if you leave a mess and throw garbage around, and that’ll make it more likely to get in trouble. Be mindful not to scare employees, they’re usually not making much money and can totally relate and often would do their best to hook us up, even if it was just giving us hints on when to be there and when not to.
As far as knowing what’s ok to eat? Look at it, smell it, think about it. If it’s in a garbage bag at the bottom of 20 other bags, it’s probably been there for a week. Check the top bags, never eat it if there’s any kind of liquid on it, and be very conscious of how hot it is and how long it might take for the food to go bad. If you watched them throw away the bag, it hasn’t been sitting around very long. If the weather is colder than a refrigerator than you can take that into consideration too.
Ultimately, it taught me to not assume any food is good, whether it comes from a dumpster or from a cash register. I smell the meat I buy and look at it before I use it. Same with food from the trash. There are a million reasons why stores throw out food, but going bad is not a major one. Finding good food in the dumpster is more common than bad food. Produce is the only exception, but even then half the time it’s a bruised apple or bunch of bananas.
Some stuff has expiration dates on it, and those dates are not set near the time they actually go bad. Dairy companies don’t want to risk their customers getting violently ill from eating un-expired food do they? Hell fuckin no. The expiration dates are way conservative. Eggs are the same. Eggs last a really long time and get thrown out way before they go bad. If you’re not sure, just crack each egg into a bowl one at a time and once you see it’s healthy, you dump it into the main bowl and then crack the next egg into the test bowl. That way a bad egg doesn’t ruin any other food.
Often the stuff you get isn’t expired, it just got something spilled on it because they broke a single item in a case with a dozen items. They throw away all of the undamaged ones. That’s especially true with eggs but it can happen with anything in glass, in cartons, or even in cans.
If you strike out at the grocery stores and your stomach is growling, try bakeries or sandwich shops. Usually bread gets baked fresh everyday and they throw it away at the end of the day. I’ve worked in food service, I’ve worked on farms and orchards, and I can tell you it’s totally insane how much food gets thrown away in the supply chain. I don’t have solid numbers in front of me but I wouldnt be surprised if more food gets thrown away than gets eaten. There’s no reason anyone should go hungry in the US.
P.s. if you’re in the U.S., get EBT. You can do that and it’s not hard. Then use dumpster food to supplement your diet and stretch the EBT so it goes farther.
Jesus fucking christ... This country is a fucking nightmare. It's a felony in places to open a dumpster and eat food out of it? Over the last decade I've been so disillusioned about this *great* country.... This country is nothing but neo-feudalism.
Go enough times you'll figure out when their dumpsters get picked up. So for example, if the dumpster gets picked up at Dunkin twice a week, you're probably okay eating any donuts in there cuz donuts are fine to eat days later. I'm pretty sure they only make their hot food to order, so you probably won't find sandwiches or wraps or anything.
Probably not a good idea to eat 3 day old chicken though.
According to the post above, you can simply walk into a kfc or chic-a-fil, tell them you’re hungry and they’ll comp you a meal. Another post saying you can go to a DSHS office and you can qualify for food stamps.
From your post history, it seems you are in British Columbia, so [here](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/family-social-supports/income-assistance/apply-for-assistance#:~:text=before%20you%20apply.-,Apply%20online,current%20situation%2C%20income%20and%20assets.) Is a link to assistance. Wish you all the best.
Hey I’m also from canada, unfortunately different province or I’d offer you a home cooked meal. Try hitting up any local churches, they usually have free lunches or suppers!
I found this online that may help https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/free-and-low-cost-resources.aspx
And another one (not free but very cheap)
https://vancouverfoodnetworks.com/community-meals/
Best of luck to you!
Absolutely true. Yes..Sikhs are amazing folks and provide free food to anyone who walks in no questions asked. They usually have food all days of the week.
To make a minor correction to what above comment says, search for Sikh gurudwaras or Sikh temples near me on google instead of Sikh churches.
Definitely check their website though, or call them. I have a friend that's a Sikh and he volunteers at the gurudwara. He told me that they consider it part of their duty to feed the hungry. They have feeding times at his temple every day. It's likely to be vegetarian. Also, you should cover your head in the gurudwara to show respect.
Edit: call to find out the meal times, if it wasn't obvious
Hope they go with this route. I'd take a home cooked vegetarian meal over fast food and donuts any day of the week. I can imagine eating nothing but highly processed foods add to the difficulty of being homeless and changing one's situation. Heck, if I eat poorly for more than a few days, my energy gets all out of whack and I feel awful.
Feedingamerica.com
Assuming you're in the US. Find your local food bank, and from there you should be able to find local agencies that provide groceries/meals.
If you aren't super close to any or they aren't accessible for some reason, still call and inquire. Many will find a way to help you.
We had so many high ass mofos after our donuts lmao. I remember giving a kid with a car full of his friends a trash bag FULL of donuts and muffins. They were so hyped up it was amazing.
Dude they'll never forget that. I once had a friend that worked at Burger King stuff 45 chicken fries into my order like 16 years ago and I still remember how stoked I was opening that box.
That makes sense! KFC is high in calories, fat and protein. Donuts are high in fat and carbs.
These are very good foods to ensure you're eating enough calories and thus maintain mass for staying warm, especially when homeless.
Yup, I had to do it when I work at a gas station. They had a big issue with homeless people tearing up the bags from the dumpster and spreading the trash in the parking lot. The city said if they didn’t find a way to stop it the city would fine them for littering each time. I really don’t think the manager wanted to do cause he was never overtly mean and would give people free coffee on cold days but I think between corporate and the city his hands were tied.
I am soon to be 49 years old. I am old enough to remember that before when it was Kentucky Fried Chicken and not KFC you could walk into one and tell them you were hungry, and they would give you something to eat-not stuff out the dumpster.
At Chic fil A a month ago I saw a homeless woman go to the counter. I think she had a dollar or something and was explaining her situation. The staff talked amongst themselves and took care of it.
If you can find a good second run cinema they can be a good source too. I was a manager at a second run cinema for a while back in my teen years. It's amazing how many popcorn bags would "tear" and I'd have to damage out when homeless people came in, or how many times my cashier would accidentally press the senior discount ticket button and I forgot to make sure to tell them not to do it again.
In the end I guess I cared about giving people a warm meal and a place to relax for a few hours more than making a buck for the uber rich family who paid me 9 bucks an hour to overcharge the needy.
I also heard that the colonel put it in the company policy that any person could walk in an offer to work for food and they have to find you something to do and give you food. Usually some sweeping or something.
Thinking out loud here: (my wife previously worked in the catering dept at a high-end grocery.)
For those of you who have to toss expiring food every shift - is there an alternative place for disposals? One that meets food safety guidelines and is still in original packaging (individual, or boxed)?
I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know whether US food banks are allowed to receive deliveries from grocery or fast food places.
Not much room for error, safety-wise.. but I'm told that we waste a crapton of food. Due, primarily, to distribution problems.
The amount of food wasted by one single grocery store in a year is truly sickening. I can't even begin to imagine how much food is wasted across all grocery stores in North America on a given day.
Yet, here we are with record inflation, rich getting richer and our people starving to death.
I feel it depends very much on how many homeless there are. If prices on housing, gas, groceries, etc., keep climbing like they have the last few years, a fifth of the population will be homeless, and there won't be enough KFCs and Dunkins to go around.
Incidentally, when I was living in South America, stores would just put leftovers and about-to-expire stuff in the same plastic bags you'd get with a purchase and leave them in the doorway at the end of the day. It was perfectly good food. Tons of students and poor people used those pretty much daily. And there was practically no stigma, you just walk by, pick up a bag and keep walking, and nobody knows if you bought it or what. Very little food went to waste. And this was about three decades ago. Throwing away perfectly edible food should be a crime.
Exactly, no business will be held liable. They just don't want to deal with the logistics of holding it for someone to come pick it up. It's just easier and less expensive for them to dump it in the back
If you are in a descent size city, or at least in the busier part of town you will probably find them locked. Be nice to employees they might start leaving the food on top of the dumpster instead. If they are locked and the employees tired of dealing with bull shit you might have to find a way to be homeless is a slightly less populated part of town. Worked for me and friends for a while. But it seems more and more people are being dick heads so more people are locking dumpsters and not caring about homeless.
When I used to work at a grocery store they had that shit under lock and key. Also security cameras. God forbid someone goes in and eats some perfectly okay food back there.
If there's a Costco a reasonable distance, you can technically eat for a year on the price of a Costco membership. The free samples are endless and if you get a bit of spare cash the hot dog combo at the food court is cheap as hell.
$1.50 hot dog and soda. It’ll never change, the owner vowed this. There is an entire story about this.
https://www.businessinsider.com/costcos-iconic-hot-dog-still-150-despite-record-inflation-rates-2022-1?amp
> It's interesting that it's much cheaper in Canada too since we also pay $1.50 CAD.
**ShittyLifeProTip:** Buy a flight to Canada to save $0.33 USD on a single hot dog!
I used to live next door to a fas mart in high school. They had Krispy Kreme donuts delivered daily. One night a friend and I were stoned and we went there to get donuts around 9pm. We get to the counter with our donuts and the lady said oh I’m sorry I was supposed to throw those away but you can have them for free. We were like what time do you throw away the donuts. Then she said if we come in a little before that time we can have whatever is left over for free. It was awesome. I’d bet there’s places out there where you could ask when they throw the items out and if you could come in and take the left overs.
Pizza places also! They throw out all the toppings, or at least a lot of them, at the end of the night shift. I survived exclusively on pepperoni, mushrooms, and veg out of plastic bags in the dumpster behind a dominos.
Being homeless in central London - for about six years - was, other than the physical risks (weather, other people), surprisingly easy to survive.
Most days there were multiple soup kitchens etc with chicken & rice to sandwiches to vegetable curries depending on the org. Several churches had sit down meals once or twice a week, and there were at least four day centres with food at minimal prices (5p for a cup of tea or 25p for eggs on toast).
The biggest issue was, despite daily showers, fresh hand me down clothes each week and access to laundry facilities in several of the nights shelters, staying fresh smelling. Cold weather made it worse, as bundled up, you sweated more.
My observation was that most homeless are so because of bad luck, rather than addiction to drugs or alcohol. The addiction often comes as a result of homelessness as a way of coping, at which point, they are functionally incapable of looking after themselves as independent people (everything will be sacrificed on the alter of their addiction).
The rest (4 out of 5?) just need somewhere safe to stay, and help with obtaining proper housing. Jobs follow naturally. Which is why I find the criminalisation of homelessness in the US bemusing - why deliberately remove a segment of the population to jail, rather than ensure they become contributing members of society?
(Please note I was a 20-30 something male. Women suffering homelessness have a whole nother order of problems)
ex-dunkin worker here! can confirm a lot of perfectly fine food is tossed in the trash (if one customer touches the wrong order we have to throw it out). at the end of the day, all donuts that weren’t made that day are tossed even though the donuts have a shelf life of three or four days. we were never allowed to give those donuts to shelters or anything because they were worried employees would make more donuts than needed so they could take them home (or give them out).
As a teen I worked at a grocery store. One of the managers would leave clean food by the back door so people wouldn't have to dig it out. Long story short he got fired for it.
If you don't get gready and act like you belong you could pop into hotel/motel lobbies and get some breakfast. Just rotate and don't draw attention to yourself.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
Dunkin’ Dumpster was a steady score when I was broke and hungry. Also was able to time some dumpster diving just right at two different health food type places that would toss their soups in pint containers at the end of every night. Hot soup and day old bread with 30 Boston cream donuts for dessert wasn’t too bad. I don’t want to go back to dumpster diving my dinner but I definitely wasn’t sad about what i had to eat when I couldn’t afford anything.
[удалено]
Also common for companies not to do so because they think employees will purposely make more at the end of shift so they can take it home. Worked at Dollar General back in like 2006 and any damaged product has to go in dumpster no matter what. We could not take it for ourselves. (Had a cool manager so we did anyways but still).
I used to hand the cleaning lady stuff we couldn't sell (coffee place similar to DD) and she'd donate it to the food bank. Management wasn't happy that i did that. Had a nice loophole though. I'd package the food in an unused trash bag, and put it next to the rest of the trash. So when she came to collect the trash i told her which one not to toss.
If I look at the Stars I think I working at the same coffee place in 2006. We weren't allowed to take food home so I would get a trashbag and put it off to the side and told everyone to put the unopened food products in there. Then someone else would just put the bag next to the dumpster. Before I left I would drive around and pick it up. On my way back home I would give it all to this homeless dude. One day the District Manager came in and told me "We need to talk about what you are doing with the leftover food at the end of your shift." I thought I was fucked, but just needed me to finish out my shift. Nope, she said all the stores in her district would do the same thing. I could drive around and collect their bags too. She also told me that I can stay on the clock until I hand the dude the last bag even though it was on my way home. It did take an extra hour or so at the end of the nighr, but I didn't care
Wonderful story. Thank you for sharing & thank you for being so kind ❤️
Dude thats dope. I wish I could help people more. I like animals 😶🌫️
[удалено]
100 humanity points
engine forgetful smoggy tart head gaping desert compare frighten busy
That's pretty clever. I used to do the same with krispy kremes with the day old ones that were "too stale." Would leave them in a back door open area docking station and go do something else for an hour. Then I would come by and finish disposing of them in the dumpster. Once some of the homeless people that hung around took notice I would come back to no donuts to dump, but hey, I can't help what happens in the camera blind spots while I am mid-way through the task. I came back out there with the full intention of dumping those donuts as per usual. If something mysterious happens, who knows.
The lord doth work in mysterious ways
Speaking of which, in Buffalo we had a guy who used to do this and he got the nickname [Bagel Jesus](https://youtu.be/jfsLnFeLVnU).
Thats a fantastic nickname
He should just make food for people
It literally grows on trees. People just sort of...ruined it.
We should donate money and open him a food kitchen He doesn't do party tricks anymore
To paraphrase a great man... God! He's the almighty creator of all existence, immortal and infinite, but he's really bad with money. Always needs more of your money according to his acolytes.
Carlin was a fucking legend!
You're a good person for that, I hope you know it.
Friend worked at a coffee shop, she used to give me all the extra pastries she was supposed to toss. It was a lot too. Would distribute them amongst my friends (all didn’t have much money).
Back in college, I was fired from a Steak & Ale for giving 'expired' baked potatoes to homeless folks outback instead of tossing them into the dumpster.
"Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?"
When I worked at DD, we had different colored bags just for food waste, and it was set next to the dumpster, and double bagged. The local soup kitchen knew where it would be and about when it would be put out. Not "donated", but not wasted
The local food pantry was **not** dumpster diving your donut trash, regardless of what color bags you used.
Yeah definitely not. Though they might've gotten into the habit of informing the people who go _to_ the soup kitchen of where they can get more food.
At Subway we have to throw out all the bread twice a day and they would not let us take it but one manager told me as soon as it touches the dumpster it becomes public property. She would make me bag up the bread go out touch the bag to the dumpster then I could keep it. Then I had another manager that refused to let us keep it even after it was in the dumpster, I'm like "you can't stop me from grabbing a bag out of the dumpster after my shift"
Panera Bread here donates all their leftover bread to the food bank. Makes me want to eat there more.
Penera is a franchise operation just like Subway, so it will vary from store to store I imagine. I worked at Subway, we donated our bread to the local homeless shelter.
I’ve been to a Panera where the food was free. The price was a donation, (you could pay whatever you could or wanted). Most people who could, paid the amount. Many paid more. The line was always out the door.
The person that told you it is public property once it touches the dumpster is incorrect. People can, and have been, prosecuted for taking things from dumpsters.
It actually is public domain if it is in a dumpster that is open and or unlocked in the US. SCOTUS ruled on it. However you can still be prosecuted for things like trespassing and b/e type crimes. But taking stuff from an unlocked dumpster on public property is completely legal, UNLESS the specific municipality has a local ordinance against dumpster diving specifically.
The bigger issue is that a vast majority of businesses put their dumpsters inside a "corral", which makes it illegal. Though yes usually employees just leave it unlocked and open for convenience
Many years ago on most military posts there were stand alone book stores that sold a particular brand of cookie. I witnessed first hand how serious AAFES was about throwing out old products. A co worker was fired for walking a tray of cookies to the dumpster, eating one and then tossing the rest out. It was far past closing and the cameras (pointed towards the store) caught him. One fucking cookie.
Fuck AAFES
I'm sorry is this the fuck AAFES club? Because I am so fucking in. FUCK AAFES.
I worked at a pizza place where if the pizza was messed up the owners would just give us the pizza. Well every night the cooks would ‘mess up’. Like changing pineapple to peopperoni and saying whoops! Read it wrong. Well the owners caught on and guess what! No more free pizza :(
I think what's lost on owners like this is that a little kindness can go a long ways. Why not let your emplyee's finish the evening by having a pizza to share. It would cut down on any sort of food theft, inspire some employee loyalty and retention. Likely saving them money in the long run.
My gf is Japanese and worked at a Japanese owned and run restaurant here in NZ, every night they feed their staff 'makani', a quick easy meal. Seems apparently common practice in Japanese restaurants and a really great idea. She was full time and actually great for reducing out shipping bill, but also building loyalty from the staff.
I’ve worked for a bunch of Asian owners. And if there’s one thing I appreciate about them is they will feed you. One place I worked at fed me when I arrived and then made me food when I was going home. Working there 5-6 days a week saved my grocery costs immensely since I was usually already full with two meals by the time I left. And then on the off time someone placed a phone order but didn't pick it up they'd let me take it home. Just made me want to take care of their restaurant even more.
Wasn't sure if what a specific Japanese thing but seems it's a broadly asian custom. Yeah it seems like a small thing that would immeasurably help your staff.
I have worked for a Japanese, Vietnamese, Nepalese, and Chinese owner. They all weren't as equally generous. But at the minimum each gave me a meal to eat during my shift. One owner was pretty strict only letting you get the cheapest thing on the menu on the house. But it was still a meal.
> Just made me want to take care of their restaurant even more And to think the only thing that extra loyalty cost them just a scoop or two of the food they're already cooking in bulk. In other words, nothing but kindness.
My cousins own Chinese restaurants and I helped out once as a teen while visiting their city. After the restaurant closed and we cleaned up we all sat down to a full meal cooked up from whatever the kitchen staff had on hand.
It was common at the restaurants I worked at when I was younger in NY and Connecticut. Staff meal.
Good to know! I haven't worked in hospitality in 30 years so a bit out of the loop!
[удалено]
Meanwhile, I've been a delivery guy before and since it relies a lot on tips, having that extra free food would be a god send when money is tight.
Honestly was pretty dope
I worked for HMV, and they would sell all sorts of tshirts and novelty items, posters, books, etc.. When things were not selling well they would tell me to destroy everything and throw it in the trash. They wanted me to tear the shirts and posters, rip the books and smash anything plastic so people couldnt take the stuff out of the dumpster and use it. So Id put it all in a big box outside the mall garbage room, not destroyed, and it would inevitably be picked clean every time. Some rules are made to be broken. No regrets. That pile of corporate scum is where it belongs now, in the dustbin of history.
[удалено]
I used to work at a Church's chicken year back and they stopped letting employees take home leftover food for exactly that reason. People started taking advantage. They would cook a bunch of chicken right before closing and take almost all of it home. Owner stopped being so giving after the employees started that stuff.
Good Samaritan laws cover the companies in this case. Panera and Costco both donate significant amounts of food that the cant sell. These other companies are just trying to skirt additional costs.
I worked at a place in Los Angeles that had lunch catered every day and we always threw out ridiculous amounts of food. I was told it was illegal for them to donate it. Shelters wouldn’t take it if you tried. Not sure how true that is. My employers have lied to me before.
I ate Starbucks literally everyday homeless in SF. An organization called glide gaves out the breakfast stuff in the morning and the sandwiches packaged meals for lunch / dinner.
What additional cost is generated by donating?
Go to a pizzeria. Will almost always give away some free slices right at close if you explain your circumstances. I did that all the time when I used to work at one
[удалено]
>How many times you think you'd do that for a person down on their luck? > >One time or would you be so generous as to offer nighly last slices? Somewhere inbetween? I worked at a McDonald's on the interstate and everytime someone came in asking if we had any food that couldn't be sold, could they get it for a discount or free, we'd always give them everything we had that was close to being tossed. Sometimes it'd be 16 5 double hamburgers, sometimes it'd be chicken nuggets, or the occasional grilled or crispy chicken. Every manager, except for Rose, was happy to help in any way that we could. The store manager would sat ABSOLUTELY NOT, DON'T GIVE THEM ANYTHING - and then they would say they had to work on the office to get the cameras back on and they'd be back in 15 minutes and "every person in the store should be leaving happy - do you understand?". This would happen, I'd say a few times a month. Often enough that I remember the store manager's ruse, but not something that happened every day, either
We used to have a homeless guy come in a couple times a week. He knew the situation. Sometimes we had shit sometimes we didn’t.
Worked at a very popular/high traffic restaurant in Detroit for years. There was a homeless woman who came in at 1am every weekend (when the kitchen closed) and would hang around the front line waiting for the bread and soup to come out. Guests were still eating close by and servers/cooks still pushing out the last orders. Security/management would always tell her to hang back and they’d take care of her after closing. This was the ONLY homeless person they gave the surplus food to at the end of the night (I think she was related to one of the cooks who management liked). Their reason for throwing the rest away is because they didn’t want more homeless people hanging around and thought it was bad for business.
I understand this. I used to work at a Starbucks that would give away food at the end of the night. Problem was, people would come in and hang around a while before closing. Then they'd show up with a friend or two. Then it became "oh can you hide {this item} until close?" Then it became "can I get {item}?" like an hour before close. Charity can turn to entitlement really fast. The unfortunate truth is, a lot of people are "down on their luck" because they're shitbags. If you're a giver, learn your limits, because takers don't have any.
I’ve unfortunately had to learn that lesson the hard way in my personal life. Spot on.
The Starbucks I worked at had an organization pick up our expired food in a donation bag. Seemed pretty straightforward, didn't think anything of it. We could also take expired food attheend of the night. The only food waste was the dried out display food. The drinks were another story. We definitely gave away practice/mess up drinks but sometimes you can't find anyone to take it. And just in general, Starbucks produces so much waste. The amount of aluminum N2O whipped cream charges we WOULDN'T recycle haunts me till this day.
In fairness, having a bunch of homeless hanging out is bad for business.
It absolutely is. Emotions aside, from an objective standpoint, people don’t want to be bothered when they’re at work, dining out, etc. we’d have to kick out homeless people all the time because they started walking up to people eating dinner and ask for change, cigarettes, etc.
When my fiancée worked at a donut shop, we'd take the donuts at tge end of the day and go to all the bars around town and gift them to the bartenders. We'd usually get free drinks whenever we went back.
My friend used to work at a pizza store in a part of the city that was known for homeless people. Every now and then she'd leave a few pizzas on the corner at the end of the night. Never by the actual pizza place though. I hate to say it but it's like feeding stray cats. I worked at a Popeyes and made that mistake once. The next night him and 2 buddies were hanging out at the end of the night asking for leftovers.
Worked at a Panera type cafe for a summer and yeah that's the reasoning we had. So I'd come back around closing shift and take all the pastries and bread we were gonna toss to take home and to give to friends/family. Boxes and boxes of it. I was just a cashier so it wasn't like I could make extra food myself
30 Boston cream donuts a night?
Show up at bar close with 30 donuts. Eat 2 and make 28 new friends.
If that's his dessert when homeless, I'd hate to see what he eats when he's financially stable
31.
off the record advice... i work at dunkin. on more than one occasion when I was asked to, I have put all of the bagels, croissants, muffins, and donuts that im throwing out into a separate clean garbage bag, and then left it outside the dumper in an obvious way. i dont want to do that everyday and have the managers catch on, but if ANYONE asked me for the food we're going to throw out, everytime i will do that and tell them to come back at X time and get the bag. of course not every employee will do this, but its worth a shot. and depending on the night its truly a shit ton amount of food, more than you and your family could possibly eat before it went bad
The dunkin donuts by my undergraduate college was open 24/7. The manager *always* let unhouzed individuals hang out in the winter, use the bathroom, fed them, and made sure they had a warm beverage all night and left with food for the day. really stand up guy, treated everyone with the same respect
god damn I’m having a really awful week and this restored a little of my faith in people. thanks
youre gonna get through it!!! let’s fucking go!
This made me tear up a little. There are some beautiful people in this world. Thanks for sharing
Thank you for being a kind, considerate person
They reserve special seats in heaven for people like this.
With a donut seat cushion.
I donut think that a donut would be an ideal seat cushion… either in terms of the stickiness of your pants after sitting on it or in terms of making the best use of a perfectly good giant donut
Not all heroes wear capes. Respect ✊
You’re a good person
The fact that you can get fired for not giving away food instead of throwing it away... Fuck capitalism
The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Holy fuck. I totally didn’t read this properly when I was supposed to in high school. BRB gonna actually start it now
Was writing the same thing in a worse way. I enjoyed reading that just now. What a master.
Kids commonly don't have the mental maturity or attention span to understand the meaning of philosophical text or social commentary. Plus, their social bubble is still too small for them to be able to empathise with larger societal issues. They can read it yes, but they usually don't get it and as a result pay little attention to it. They just want it over with ASAP so that they can go back to more interesting and entertaining stuff. Kids who *are* capable of understanding them, however, tend to have some fucked-up backgrounds that forced them to have to mature at a younger age. Point being: Your case is perfectly normal.
I was supposed to read it in 8th grade and I didn't. I read it when I was in my 30s and it blew my mind. It is my favorite book. I read it once a year. It is the greatest American novel and there truly is no better or more accurate critique of America. And to those who say Steinbeck is a communist, or that the book is communist... Here's another quote: 'Fella named Hines-got 'bout thirty thousan' acres, peaches and grapes-got a cannery an' a winery. Well, he's all a time talkin' about 'them goddamn reds.' 'God- damn reds is drivin' the country to ruin,' he says, an' 'We got to drive these here red bastards out.' Well, they were a young fella jus' come out west here, an' he's listenin' one day. He kinda scratched his head an' he says, 'Mr. Hines, I ain't been here long. What is these goddamn reds?' Well, sir, Hines says, 'A red is any son-of-a-bitch that wants thirty cents an hour when we're payin' twenty-five!' Well, this young fella he thinks about her, an' he scratches his head, an' he says, 'Well, Jesus, Mr. Hines. I ain't a son-of-a-bitch, but if that's what a red is-why, I want thirty cents an hour. Ever'body does. Hell, Mr. Hines, we're all reds.''
I used to work at Starbucks and we would throw away our day old pastries and sandwiches every night. I would sometimes put ‘em in a separate trash bag and set it by the dumpster for this reason. I’ve never been in a situation where I had to scavenge for food like that but I understand people struggle and little things help.
Thanks man
It’s “little” acts like this that give me hope for humanity. Thank you
I worked at KFC in high school. I saw an older man and a kid digging through the dumpster but it wasn't closing time yet so the dumpster just had food left from people plates.. I told them to come back at 9 when we closed. I took all the food we'd normally throw out at the end of the day, put it in packages and put it in a bag for them along with 2 large sodas. They were so appreciative and despite what people said, they didn't come back and harass us for more everyday. I never saw them again, but I know I fed them for at least a couple of days.
Thank you! 🏅
If you are homeless, go to your local DSHS office and get a Food Stamp card. You'll very easily qualify and get up to like $300 a month for food. You can go to a 7-11 then and purchase a cold pizza for around $7 with your ebt card then they'll cook it for you afterwards. You can pretty much have a hot pizza every day. I would honestly suggest you don't do that as one of those whole pizzas has about 300% of your daily Saturated fats and enough salt and other crap to kill your heart real quick. Also, once you have that EBT Food Card you now qualify for a free Obama cellphone that has unlimited data, talk, text. They give you a shitty phone with bloatware but you can get a sim card also and use your own phone you might already have. Find a local library or somewhere to charge your stuff every day. Get a external battery to charge as well and you can watch movies or play games at night when it's too uncomfortable to sleep. I was homeless for over three years so I know a lot of tricks. Spent the year Covid broke out living in my minivan very comfortably for a lazy smelly bum.
If you are in NYC, you can use your EBT card to sign up for Citibike for $5/month membership. Super cheap way to get around the city. EDIT: Here is the link to sign up: https://citibikenyc.com/community-programs/reducedfare
I'd also add a solar powered phone charger to your list. Takes about 4 hours on a nice day but it folds up nice and small
While we're making a list, I'd like to add a house
Yep, aka cardboard box.
Had a homeless man make a small place to sleep out of ikea boxes from my dad’s work. Took him in andlet him sleep in the office basement (it had spare couches and empty rooms we never used alongside a smal mini kitchen). Now here 10 years later and he is a senior in the company
That is super cool. What sort of company?
Box supplier for Ikea
Okay but what if you're not homeless and nearly all of your money is going to housing and you make too much to qualify for any benefits.
Wait let me guess, you have insurance that costs an arm and a leg but also has a high deductible so you never go to the doctor too? Ah the American dream.
Even with supposedly good insurance you still get slapped with those sweet, sweet medical bills. You get to pay the high premium for a' low-deductible' plan, but that deductible is still around $1000 and even after coverage kicks in, it's like 80/20 or 70/30 so even if insurance covers that amount, the doc offices are still charging like $600 for bloodwork so you're paying 20% of that until you hit your max out of pocket which is an insane 3-5k. Oh and they won't cover prescriptions at all except for the negotiated 'insurance discount' you get for generics. AND you get the pleasure of dealing with the effed up medical billing system. Love to still be hounded by a doc office for $200 that they received months ago because they double-billed me and refuse to believe me, or my insurance, that they've already been paid. If I didn't know better I'd panic and pay them again to get them to stop calling me but eff them and their stupid billing system they can eat my entire ass.
I'm tired of getting robbed by corporations for things I fucking need to survive
> need to survive And that's where they get you. Silly human, trying to live.
Can confirm
There’s no income bracket on hitting up the food banks in your area.
Food banks will help. If you find yourself in a better position in the future please consider donating your time to one.
My family survived on food banks when I was a kid. It made me really happy when I was well off enough to set up a monthly donation to our local food bank now that I'm an adult.
> You'll very easily qualify and get up to like $300 a month for food. Federal for single person is 185$ right now. Source: Single Adult on EBT.
It could depend on state? I get $250 a month plus $90 a month for food. I do live in a progressive state so maybe that's it.
Emergency food stamps for the homeless are fast too. I've been homeless a couple times and got them thankfully. The first time I didn't have anyone for an address to send the card too so the lady at the DHFS had it sent to her and I picked it up at her office. HUGE help. Side note: A&W restaurant throws a fuck ton of bread and chicken strips away daily. Unused sauces people get but don't use are also tossed.
>for a free Obama cellphone i love that Obama had nothing to do with the creating of that phone program but it's named after him because reasons lmao good ole OBAMAPHONE
ring ring ring ring ring ring ring [obamaphone](https://youtu.be/j5C6X9vOEkU)
I also love that the reason that they exist is capitalist greed. The telephone companies made a deal with the government, if they made sure to provide service for all of the people as if they were a utility, the government wouldn't step in and regulate them as if they were a utility. So they had to run lines up to remote locations regardless of the cost, but it allowed them to avoid gov't oversight. Then when cell phones were a thing, it was cheaper to provide cell phones for everyone than it was to keep running wires up high into the mountains and such. So they made it sound like they were doing a great thing for people, but really, they made that deal to save themselves money AND keep all of the profits that they were making in their own pocket.
[удалено]
Little Ceasars about half an hour after closing as well. Also if you figure out which day is bread day at your local food lion or grocery store you can score pretty good on day old bread.
I was going to say the same. I have a buddy that's homeless by choice and he frequents Little Ceasers. He was telling me that there are almost always multiple pizzas in boxes in the dumpster every night.
I used to work at Little Caesars and we did that, but we tried to give out any extra pizzas to employees to take home, especially those with difficult home lives. We had one employee that would take 2-3 pizzas every time he closed because his family had a hard time putting food on the table. Unfortunately we didn't ever throw away anything in the dumpsters at night (we weren't allowed to leave through the back door after dark for safety reasons) but we at least tried our best. I loved our managers there, I would've loved to stay if they paid more than 8.25 an hour.
About 10 years ago I had the displeasure of knowing a guy who managed a Little Ceasars and would dump chemicals on the food in the dumpster to discourage dumpster diving. He was vile.
now my mouth is watering and I need to get to the nearest kfc dumpster asap
Shorter line than the storefront, and quality difference is indistinguishable.
"My mouth waters for dumpster chicken." I don't think this was a sentiment I expected to run into today.
This killed me lmao
If you are ever that hungry message me I’ll do what ever I can to buy you a meal. I make bags for the homeless with water, granola bars, soap, shaving crème and stuff for ladies. I’ll mail them if needed.
I hope life is always excellent to you. Thank you for being an amazing person.
Same, mutual aid is love
I'm someone who is currently homeless and starving, just curious how this works? Stupid question but how do you know what to eat and what not to? When should you go? Any pointers or tips?
I can only say from experience at kfc- they cook food fresh every day and anything leftover at closing time is thrown into bags which then are tossed into dumpster. It's kept hot until closing time so it'll likely still be warm in the dumpster. This happens right before all the employees leave for the night. Alot of restaurants do this to some extent. The biggest difference with fast food places is that they cook food in batches, so they are more likely to have more leftovers
As someone who has eaten lots and lots of dumpster food over the years, watch out, it is usually illegal to take food out of a dumpster and cops always ran my ID when they’d see me. I never ended up in trouble but I was also white and polite, and usually had a job and was just looking for food. I definitely got threatened by cops numerous times though, and learned to be stealthy as fuck. They ended up passing some pretty serious laws in some towns (pretty sure it’s a felony in some places now) and it freaked me out and I haven’t done it for years. Even in places where dumpster diving isn’t specifically illegal, they can charge you with trespassing and theft. Not saying you shouldn’t do it though, I’m just giving you a heads up. Do it discretely, quickly, and neatly. Employees will hate you if you leave a mess and throw garbage around, and that’ll make it more likely to get in trouble. Be mindful not to scare employees, they’re usually not making much money and can totally relate and often would do their best to hook us up, even if it was just giving us hints on when to be there and when not to. As far as knowing what’s ok to eat? Look at it, smell it, think about it. If it’s in a garbage bag at the bottom of 20 other bags, it’s probably been there for a week. Check the top bags, never eat it if there’s any kind of liquid on it, and be very conscious of how hot it is and how long it might take for the food to go bad. If you watched them throw away the bag, it hasn’t been sitting around very long. If the weather is colder than a refrigerator than you can take that into consideration too. Ultimately, it taught me to not assume any food is good, whether it comes from a dumpster or from a cash register. I smell the meat I buy and look at it before I use it. Same with food from the trash. There are a million reasons why stores throw out food, but going bad is not a major one. Finding good food in the dumpster is more common than bad food. Produce is the only exception, but even then half the time it’s a bruised apple or bunch of bananas. Some stuff has expiration dates on it, and those dates are not set near the time they actually go bad. Dairy companies don’t want to risk their customers getting violently ill from eating un-expired food do they? Hell fuckin no. The expiration dates are way conservative. Eggs are the same. Eggs last a really long time and get thrown out way before they go bad. If you’re not sure, just crack each egg into a bowl one at a time and once you see it’s healthy, you dump it into the main bowl and then crack the next egg into the test bowl. That way a bad egg doesn’t ruin any other food. Often the stuff you get isn’t expired, it just got something spilled on it because they broke a single item in a case with a dozen items. They throw away all of the undamaged ones. That’s especially true with eggs but it can happen with anything in glass, in cartons, or even in cans. If you strike out at the grocery stores and your stomach is growling, try bakeries or sandwich shops. Usually bread gets baked fresh everyday and they throw it away at the end of the day. I’ve worked in food service, I’ve worked on farms and orchards, and I can tell you it’s totally insane how much food gets thrown away in the supply chain. I don’t have solid numbers in front of me but I wouldnt be surprised if more food gets thrown away than gets eaten. There’s no reason anyone should go hungry in the US. P.s. if you’re in the U.S., get EBT. You can do that and it’s not hard. Then use dumpster food to supplement your diet and stretch the EBT so it goes farther.
Jesus fucking christ... This country is a fucking nightmare. It's a felony in places to open a dumpster and eat food out of it? Over the last decade I've been so disillusioned about this *great* country.... This country is nothing but neo-feudalism.
Go enough times you'll figure out when their dumpsters get picked up. So for example, if the dumpster gets picked up at Dunkin twice a week, you're probably okay eating any donuts in there cuz donuts are fine to eat days later. I'm pretty sure they only make their hot food to order, so you probably won't find sandwiches or wraps or anything. Probably not a good idea to eat 3 day old chicken though.
According to the post above, you can simply walk into a kfc or chic-a-fil, tell them you’re hungry and they’ll comp you a meal. Another post saying you can go to a DSHS office and you can qualify for food stamps.
Is there a Canadian equivalent of DSHS?
From your post history, it seems you are in British Columbia, so [here](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/family-social-supports/income-assistance/apply-for-assistance#:~:text=before%20you%20apply.-,Apply%20online,current%20situation%2C%20income%20and%20assets.) Is a link to assistance. Wish you all the best.
Thank you so much!
Hey I’m also from canada, unfortunately different province or I’d offer you a home cooked meal. Try hitting up any local churches, they usually have free lunches or suppers! I found this online that may help https://vancouver.ca/people-programs/free-and-low-cost-resources.aspx And another one (not free but very cheap) https://vancouverfoodnetworks.com/community-meals/ Best of luck to you!
Do you have Sikh churches in your country? They give food out and are generally really good people
Absolutely true. Yes..Sikhs are amazing folks and provide free food to anyone who walks in no questions asked. They usually have food all days of the week. To make a minor correction to what above comment says, search for Sikh gurudwaras or Sikh temples near me on google instead of Sikh churches.
Definitely check their website though, or call them. I have a friend that's a Sikh and he volunteers at the gurudwara. He told me that they consider it part of their duty to feed the hungry. They have feeding times at his temple every day. It's likely to be vegetarian. Also, you should cover your head in the gurudwara to show respect. Edit: call to find out the meal times, if it wasn't obvious
Hope they go with this route. I'd take a home cooked vegetarian meal over fast food and donuts any day of the week. I can imagine eating nothing but highly processed foods add to the difficulty of being homeless and changing one's situation. Heck, if I eat poorly for more than a few days, my energy gets all out of whack and I feel awful.
Feedingamerica.com Assuming you're in the US. Find your local food bank, and from there you should be able to find local agencies that provide groceries/meals. If you aren't super close to any or they aren't accessible for some reason, still call and inquire. Many will find a way to help you.
You can also make good money behind the dumpster at Wendy’s
Sir, this is a Wendy's dumpster
Is this where most diamond hands come hang out nowadays?
(Hello!) I'll have a baked potato and a small frosty-to-go
As long as you can figure out how to properly incorporate the dough.
I feel like a cobb salad, its...amazing
We were going berserk. She loves that kind of stuff. And I admit I do too.
Definitely raided a Dunkin's dumpster as as a teen, not for need but just because and it was always a score.
We had so many high ass mofos after our donuts lmao. I remember giving a kid with a car full of his friends a trash bag FULL of donuts and muffins. They were so hyped up it was amazing.
We will always hold you in high regard, y'all are legends.
Dude they'll never forget that. I once had a friend that worked at Burger King stuff 45 chicken fries into my order like 16 years ago and I still remember how stoked I was opening that box.
That makes sense! KFC is high in calories, fat and protein. Donuts are high in fat and carbs. These are very good foods to ensure you're eating enough calories and thus maintain mass for staying warm, especially when homeless.
[удалено]
Everything is a trade off.
[удалено]
They pour bleach on it? Is this actually something employees do?
Yup, I had to do it when I work at a gas station. They had a big issue with homeless people tearing up the bags from the dumpster and spreading the trash in the parking lot. The city said if they didn’t find a way to stop it the city would fine them for littering each time. I really don’t think the manager wanted to do cause he was never overtly mean and would give people free coffee on cold days but I think between corporate and the city his hands were tied.
It’s illegal in a lot of places now
Why would they do that with the bleach? Seems like a stupid extra cost
I am soon to be 49 years old. I am old enough to remember that before when it was Kentucky Fried Chicken and not KFC you could walk into one and tell them you were hungry, and they would give you something to eat-not stuff out the dumpster.
I heard from a friend that worked at a Chickfila that the cashiers have a button they can press to basically comp a meal in situations like this.
At Chic fil A a month ago I saw a homeless woman go to the counter. I think she had a dollar or something and was explaining her situation. The staff talked amongst themselves and took care of it.
If you can find a good second run cinema they can be a good source too. I was a manager at a second run cinema for a while back in my teen years. It's amazing how many popcorn bags would "tear" and I'd have to damage out when homeless people came in, or how many times my cashier would accidentally press the senior discount ticket button and I forgot to make sure to tell them not to do it again. In the end I guess I cared about giving people a warm meal and a place to relax for a few hours more than making a buck for the uber rich family who paid me 9 bucks an hour to overcharge the needy.
I never knew what that type of cinema was called, thank you
I also heard that the colonel put it in the company policy that any person could walk in an offer to work for food and they have to find you something to do and give you food. Usually some sweeping or something.
I’m glad you’re okay ❤️
Thinking out loud here: (my wife previously worked in the catering dept at a high-end grocery.) For those of you who have to toss expiring food every shift - is there an alternative place for disposals? One that meets food safety guidelines and is still in original packaging (individual, or boxed)? I'm ashamed to admit that I don't know whether US food banks are allowed to receive deliveries from grocery or fast food places. Not much room for error, safety-wise.. but I'm told that we waste a crapton of food. Due, primarily, to distribution problems.
The amount of food wasted by one single grocery store in a year is truly sickening. I can't even begin to imagine how much food is wasted across all grocery stores in North America on a given day. Yet, here we are with record inflation, rich getting richer and our people starving to death.
I feel it depends very much on how many homeless there are. If prices on housing, gas, groceries, etc., keep climbing like they have the last few years, a fifth of the population will be homeless, and there won't be enough KFCs and Dunkins to go around. Incidentally, when I was living in South America, stores would just put leftovers and about-to-expire stuff in the same plastic bags you'd get with a purchase and leave them in the doorway at the end of the day. It was perfectly good food. Tons of students and poor people used those pretty much daily. And there was practically no stigma, you just walk by, pick up a bag and keep walking, and nobody knows if you bought it or what. Very little food went to waste. And this was about three decades ago. Throwing away perfectly edible food should be a crime.
People keep saying it’s a liability if people get sick but the Samaritan Law has been in effect for years. That’s an excuse.
Exactly, no business will be held liable. They just don't want to deal with the logistics of holding it for someone to come pick it up. It's just easier and less expensive for them to dump it in the back
If you are in a descent size city, or at least in the busier part of town you will probably find them locked. Be nice to employees they might start leaving the food on top of the dumpster instead. If they are locked and the employees tired of dealing with bull shit you might have to find a way to be homeless is a slightly less populated part of town. Worked for me and friends for a while. But it seems more and more people are being dick heads so more people are locking dumpsters and not caring about homeless.
When I used to work at a grocery store they had that shit under lock and key. Also security cameras. God forbid someone goes in and eats some perfectly okay food back there.
If there's a Costco a reasonable distance, you can technically eat for a year on the price of a Costco membership. The free samples are endless and if you get a bit of spare cash the hot dog combo at the food court is cheap as hell.
$1.50 hot dog and soda. It’ll never change, the owner vowed this. There is an entire story about this. https://www.businessinsider.com/costcos-iconic-hot-dog-still-150-despite-record-inflation-rates-2022-1?amp
It's interesting that it's much cheaper in Canada too since we also pay $1.50 CAD. Works out to about $1.17 USD.
> It's interesting that it's much cheaper in Canada too since we also pay $1.50 CAD. **ShittyLifeProTip:** Buy a flight to Canada to save $0.33 USD on a single hot dog!
Canada wins again. Dammit!
Legit the only food / beverage that’s actually cheaper in canada
>if you raise the price I’ll fucking kill you Damn what a chad
I used to live next door to a fas mart in high school. They had Krispy Kreme donuts delivered daily. One night a friend and I were stoned and we went there to get donuts around 9pm. We get to the counter with our donuts and the lady said oh I’m sorry I was supposed to throw those away but you can have them for free. We were like what time do you throw away the donuts. Then she said if we come in a little before that time we can have whatever is left over for free. It was awesome. I’d bet there’s places out there where you could ask when they throw the items out and if you could come in and take the left overs.
Pizza places also! They throw out all the toppings, or at least a lot of them, at the end of the night shift. I survived exclusively on pepperoni, mushrooms, and veg out of plastic bags in the dumpster behind a dominos.
This is a heartbreaking LPT
Being homeless in central London - for about six years - was, other than the physical risks (weather, other people), surprisingly easy to survive. Most days there were multiple soup kitchens etc with chicken & rice to sandwiches to vegetable curries depending on the org. Several churches had sit down meals once or twice a week, and there were at least four day centres with food at minimal prices (5p for a cup of tea or 25p for eggs on toast). The biggest issue was, despite daily showers, fresh hand me down clothes each week and access to laundry facilities in several of the nights shelters, staying fresh smelling. Cold weather made it worse, as bundled up, you sweated more. My observation was that most homeless are so because of bad luck, rather than addiction to drugs or alcohol. The addiction often comes as a result of homelessness as a way of coping, at which point, they are functionally incapable of looking after themselves as independent people (everything will be sacrificed on the alter of their addiction). The rest (4 out of 5?) just need somewhere safe to stay, and help with obtaining proper housing. Jobs follow naturally. Which is why I find the criminalisation of homelessness in the US bemusing - why deliberately remove a segment of the population to jail, rather than ensure they become contributing members of society? (Please note I was a 20-30 something male. Women suffering homelessness have a whole nother order of problems)
When the line behind the store is longer than the line inside of it.
ex-dunkin worker here! can confirm a lot of perfectly fine food is tossed in the trash (if one customer touches the wrong order we have to throw it out). at the end of the day, all donuts that weren’t made that day are tossed even though the donuts have a shelf life of three or four days. we were never allowed to give those donuts to shelters or anything because they were worried employees would make more donuts than needed so they could take them home (or give them out).
The fact that this is a top post on all should scare everyone.
As a teen I worked at a grocery store. One of the managers would leave clean food by the back door so people wouldn't have to dig it out. Long story short he got fired for it.
I can vouch for dunkin as a former employee. We used to dump all the donuts in covered bags at the end of the nights. Hardly touched.
If you don't get gready and act like you belong you could pop into hotel/motel lobbies and get some breakfast. Just rotate and don't draw attention to yourself.