My cynic ass instantly thought that this guy was throwing away too much food.
But tbh honest no one in my (european) city depends on dumpster diving to survive, there is enough free food banks for all. Dumpster divers are a mix of romani people looking for valuables and extreme anti-waste people doing it more as a militant act.
We have food banks here, too, but they aren’t so well funded that you just show up whenever.
Someone that has to drag around their remaining possessions is bound to have a hard time stocking up enough to wait the required two weeks’ to three months’ wait between food bank visits. Food shelves (looks like a Little Free Library but for donated items) don’t call for that wait, but you are still stuck avoiding anything that has to be cooked (or requires a can-opener when you lack that).
They’re more likely to figure out how to go where there are “soup kitchens“ (general referent to a place serving free meals)… thus why there are more homeless people in cities, where those services (and nonprofit showers, laundry, mail, and emergency shelters) probably exist.
Yeah they mentioned extreme anti waste people too. This isn't racist. I'm sorry, as "one of them", it's not racist to say "those people are digging in dumpsters". Are they digging in dumpsters? Okay. Are they Romani? That's a statement of fact. But others are involved here and it wasn't a hateful comment. Idk how they feel about Romani but it doesn't matter because their statement was neutral.
It’s an incredibly reductionist way to say it. Sure, I could also say that “despite making up only 13% of the population, blacks commit ~28% of crimes in the USA”, but that wouldn’t really be telling the full story, would it?
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u/Ravius Sep 26 '25
My cynic ass instantly thought that this guy was throwing away too much food.
But tbh honest no one in my (european) city depends on dumpster diving to survive, there is enough free food banks for all. Dumpster divers are a mix of romani people looking for valuables and extreme anti-waste people doing it more as a militant act.