BEHIND THE FREE LUNCH

Many corporations have policies of throwing away "spoilage" or excess inventory of food at the end of the night. Afraid of liability, corporations often prefer to forget about the food instead of donating it. Plus, food donations don't exactly increase the bottom-line.

While freeganism is based on the excess food thrown into dumpsters, other more formalized organizations, such as City Harvest and the Food Bank for New York City, coordinate with participating businesses to organize the distribution of excess fresh and healthy food in a bid to stop waste before it even gets out of the refrigerator.

"We collect and distribute donated food from businesses to deliver to soup kitchens and food pantries to help feed those hungry in New York City," says John Krakowski, director of Policy and Public Information for City Harvest.

America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief network, acts as an umbrella organization for the roughly 200 food banks throughout the nation. Food Bank for New York City and City Harvest are affiliated with the parent organization but operate independently with a little less than 30 percent of Food Bank for New York City's food coming from food rescued by City Harvest, according to Carol Schneider, spokesperson for the organization. 

According to Krakowski, City Harvest's food rescue program ensures food safety by having inspections by the food businesses, drivers and distribution agencies throughout the entire process. Overpriced yuppie locales such as Gourmet Garage and the Food Emporium form partnerships and receive signage to let customers know about their food rescue participation. 

The formalization of business food donations started with the Bill Emerson Food Donation Act signed by Bill Clinton in 1996. It standardized the state and city policies and removed almost all the business liability for donating food to charities except for gross negligence and intentional misconduct. This law, and the efforts of non-profits such as City Harvest and the Food Bank, have started to address food waste in the United States, however, the actions of the freegans has exposed the gap between the amount of rescued food and "edible" food still being thrown in the trash.

Krakowski has heard of the concept of freeganism but sees a distinct divide between City Harvest food rescue programs and these individual acts of food rescue.

"You don't need to be a microbiologist to know going to a waste receptacle is not a good idea for a meal," says Krakowski. "There is no interaction between City Harvest and freegan organizations; we collect and deliver fresh, safe food."

Schneider also reiterates the level of cleanliness of her organization's food supply: "Everything we serve at food banks you would find in the best restaurants. We serve three balanced and nutritious meals a day."

You may not know it, but the New York City Sanitation Department only collects residential waste (and issues citations for tickets for littering and illegal dumping), but does not directly oversee commercial trash collection. Freegans mostly target commercial dumpsters, such as those found behind Key Food stores as a way to illustrate our society's over consumption. These commercial sites fall under the jurisdiction of the Business Integrity Commission, a government organization that monitors private "carters," or trash collectors, to remove the city's commercial waste. 

Thomas McCormack, chairman of the Business Integrity Commission, has not heard of the freeganism social movement, but said that there wasn't a particular penal code against the practice of searching through dumpsters or trash bags. He did say that freegans, or any other person perusing sidewalk trash, cannot litter on the sidewalk or trespass on private property. He was also quick to point out that he didn't condone freegan practices and said he had health and safety concerns regarding eating food out of the trash.

Salvatore Tornabene, owner of New York Waste, Inc., a private trash carter, has seen his fair share of bags of trash over the years. When his company picks up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, Tornabene is also used to seeing nightly regulars mining for trash treasures and says anyone dumpster diving makes his job harder. 

Tornabene claims that dumpster divers often open or cut bags to look through trash, leaving a mess for his company to clean up. According to him, the opened bags also create potential health problems by drawing rats, mice and cockroaches to the street. He claims that new codes now make the trash collectors responsible for cleaning the street, regardless of who made the mess, and that one of his employees has already been ticketed for suspected dumpster diving messes.

Seems the perfect solution would be to get more of the food being thrown out to the people who need it most without having to deal with dumpsters at all. The Bill Emerson Food Donation Act limits liability to assuage corporate concerns, so the question remains: why don't more grocers donate their waste food to City Harvest and the like? 

Perhaps the freegans are onto to something when they claim that in our society value is only determined with a sale: In the eyes of business, the food is worthless. But in the eyes of tens of thousands of homeless and hungry New Yorkers, a slightly stale bagel can mean a promise for survival.