Dig this!

There is plenty of free stuff to be found in every community Urban foraging, or dumpster diving, has become very popular in the last few decades. Well-known proponents of the movement like the nonprofit organization Food Not Bombs began feeding the hungry with salvaged food 30 years ago. I first learned about The Diggers when I was interviewing the great poets Diane di Prima and Janine Pommy Vega for Women of the Beat Generation.

The Diggers, who came together in the 1960s in San Francisco, regularly fed around 200 people a day on donated and foraged food. They also ran free shops, threw free parties, and started a free medical clinic.

Some contemporary urban foragers call themselves Freegans (a composite of “free” and “vegan”) and pride themselves on their recycling prowess. The Freegans’ mission is to live with minimal consumption of resources and limited involvement in the mechanisms of the conventional economy. If you fancy learning the skills necessary for successful dumpster diving, Freegans (www.freegans.info) are the people to contact. Active groups are listed, and some organize trash tours where they instruct newcomers on how to scavenge safely. The basic rules are commonsense: forage with at least one other person, always thoroughly check food when you get home and wash as needed before eating anything, and don’t leave a big mess at the scene of the foraging—the

rodents will love you, but storeowners won’t!