I was at the grocery store, and I thought I would ask the produce manager where all the blemished produce goes to. Low and behold he was out putting peppers in a box that had a little bit of wrinkling or a bit spotty in a box. They cannot give them out, they go straight in the dumpster and they make sure no one comes to get them out because of the govn't law and fear of getting sued. They cannot even give day old bread to the homeless shelter!!!! WTH??!!

What is wrong with us as a nation... this is horrible. this is making food costs go up....

Is there anything we can do about it? Sorry I am a new "tree hugger" lol and the thread on fregans made me think alot about this. Not that I want to dig in dumpsters, but I'd gladly take produce that is cosmetically challanged! I wonder if they'd sell it for cheap, since they cannot give it away? he said they throw so much out it is sad...

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married 8 years to a crazy Brit, mommy to a banana, she is 4 and a pineapple who is 1 year, mommy to 3 ~angel~ babies

this is why I dig in a dumpster sometimes. I am not hard core freegan, but I have done it from time to time.

You can try and work with the Food Not Bombs people and see if they could help you set up a local chapter, but it's a lot of work and you have to be reliable to the companies or they will gett tired of you and your unreliability and go back to trashing it and make sure that they will not work with groups again.

THE FOOD NOT BOMBS MOVEMENT

If you are not willing/ able to start a local group, then accept the waste.

It sucks, but it's the facts.

My husband worked at the local grocery store when we first came to town. There was a man that worked in produce that wanted to feed the stuff they couldn't sell to his pigs. The store owners orginally said yes. Some time went by and they started looking at what this man was taking home and he was taking items home that were still able to be sold. That ended that practice and now everything goes to the dump.

It is a shame that in some instances, no good deed goes unpunished. Like melsb said, people take advantage of the system and make it difficult to do good deeds.

I like your terminology of cosmetically challenged produce!

yep one person ruins it for everyone!

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Danielle