No food wasting?

Beekissed, I'm with you there! When we lived in South Africa where a vast percentage of the population are poor, we learned the value of a lot of things others would consider "junk". Moving to Ireland I was completely stunned by the things people throw away and abandon here. Houses, cars, furniture, you name it. If only I could, I would fill container ships and take it down to Africa and just give it all away.

I'm thinking now about a house I found in West Cork, where we found no less than 14 cars and two or three trailers dumped. Some of the vehicles had minor accident damage, the others I guess have mechanical problems, but they are still so useful and yet? Dumped.

I tried to get leftover produce from our cafeteria where I work for the chickens. They are not allowed to hold food over from meal to meal unless sealed and packaged (like pre-made salads). I was told there was a waiting list! I love living in the country!

When I was teaching, we used to send extra food home with kids who didn't have enough food. Then we were told that's not allowed, but at least they let me take it home for my pigs and chickens.

We/I do a ton of recycling here...can't imagine 14 cars not getting stolen by a drug addict and scrapped out for cash for the next fix. And houses....no way they wouldn't be heavily vandalized or contain squatters who have no place else to go.

It really is a shame how much stuff is wasted.

Has anyone successfully approached a grocery store or restaurant and received food waste for animal feed?

I'm tempted to contact the little grocery store here, but I'm not sure how.

I know people that have, but have not personally. It is a big process here, you are assigned a day and you must pick it up that day, you must take it all, and you have to wash the buckets and return them. But this is an area with a lot of pig farmers! So they're not short on people who are lined up for it!

The grocery store in town keeps the produce that's turning for the cattle farmer down our road.

The Starbucks bags their coffee grounds and sets them out for gardeners. They do not last long. If you see them grab them right then.

For years, my FIL used to stop at the grocery store on his way home from work and pick up a big plastic trash can full of spent produce. They would go through the can and pick out stuff not appropriate for the guinea pigs (we are talking about 500+ of the little buggers, lol). They would find cheese, sandwich meat, dairy products- all perfectly good. Then, somebody decided this was a liability problem (what if someone actually ate something that was past the sell-by date? Horrors!) and he was told he couldn't get the cans anymore, even when he said he would make sure only animals got the food.

I remember reading an article about a grocery store that was closing its doors. Everything had to go. On the day it was going to be cleaned out, hundreds of homeless and poor folk showed up, hoping to get some of the food that was being thrown away. Nope. In fact, the company called out security guards with pepper spray and the like to keep the people back while they watched all that food get loaded up in a truck and taken to the dump. A few people went to the dump, hoping to salvage something there, only to find the security had been posted there as well; they stayed there for long enough to make sure there was nothing salvageable. They told the media it was because of "liability". I say, lawyers have a lot to answer for.

I had a crazy idea this year only I don't know how it would work. And that's for places like churches, libraries, etc. that normally plant flowers in the spring to instead plant vegetable plants. Then when the stuff is ready to be picked, let the homeless and poor pick it.