By: Elyse Moore

(The name in this story has been changed upon the interviewer’s request)

 

It’s been three years since David Ortiz, 27, last ate dinner from a dumpster. Now, David is a graduate student in folklore at The University of Oregon. As he teaches about groups’ beliefs and customs, he reminisces on his own folklore experience: when he used to have to dumpster dive for his own survival. Ortiz once identified as a Freegan, someone who relies on savaging landfill-bound food to save money and reduce food waste.

 

Before teaching at the University of Oregon Ortiz lived in an abandoned barn with older “punks” in Asheville, North Carolina when he was 23 years old. One day, his house mates greeted him with two giant boxes filled with falafel mix and probiotic drinks. Confused by this unusual assortment Ortiz looked up at is house mates to learn that they found this food while dumpster diving. At that moment, seeing the plethora of food that was thrown away, he knew there was “something unethical about [it].” The next time the group went dumpster diving, Ortiz decided to tag along. He stayed in the car as he watched his friends sneak behind a dumpster at Dunkin’ Donuts, soon, they returned victoriously holding up a garbage bag filled with doughnuts. David says that working on a farm previously helped him remove a “stigma that food had to be pretty and not dirty to be good to eat.” Therefore, he could maintain his pride while getting food from dumpsters. Something that once started as a scavenger hunt for food soon turned into a daily errand for Ortiz and became his main source of nutrition. Ortiz did not make much money working freelance jobs and was below the poverty line. He enjoyed how with being a Freegan he could, “live as cheaply as possible” and enjoyed the fact that there was a “political dimension to it” he said. For Ortiz Freeganism was a way of life. He says that it is important that Freeganism should only be practiced by those who need it, and not those who can comfortably afford otherwise. Hence, with his steady income as a GTF, David retired from Freeganism.

 

However, Ortiz still fights for food waste prevention just in new ways. “Anyone can become freegan,” he said. He wants more people to protest food waste laws so that they can change legal precedent. David wishes there was not such a negative connotation around dumpster diving so he did not have to be ashamed of his past, hoping one-day Freeganism won’t seem like a taboo folklore tale.