Curious Epicurean

Freegan--someone who only eats free food, more commonly know as a dumpster-diver.

When you become a college student, you give up many things like free laundry and dignity, but you also become many things, independent, scholarly and to some degree a freegan.  I myself have witnessed, and participated in, many instances of freeganism, two of which I will share now.

Last night a girl came into our lounge and threw out a bunch of food in the garbage saying,"All these people gave me food I don't like so now I have to throw it all away."  With that she threw away what was almost a ton of food in the garbage.  The food was perfectly good and there is a community table where you put the food you don't like.  But she decided to just throw it all away.  But this didn't stop us, after she left someone took the food out of the trash and we all pounced on it.  Literally punching and biting and kicking each other out of the way to get to the food.  I distinctly remember a Jimmy Jones being certainly ravenous and making it so I could only get my hands on strawberry poptarts and I am allergic to strawberries.  

The other day there was some sort of event in the Hughes formal lounge, and as per any event at American University, there was free food.  So a few of us observed that after the meeting, there was no one in the lounge and there was a table full of food.  We all ran, literally ran downstairs and into the lounge, found the food unguarded and pillaged.  We returned victorious with many cans of soda, sandwiches and heaps of hours devours.  After gloating to everyone about the food we had purloined, we sat in our own lounge, belly's full and contented.  This was until Max ran into the room, as he is awesomely prone to do, and told us that he had overheard a conversation between some of the staff, regarding the food in the formal lounge, along the lines of, "That's what happens when you don't guard the food!"  Is this what the world has come to, yes.

Some people think that freeganism is a choice but for most college students it is a unavoidable way of life.