The Reality

There’s basically four jobs you can do when you volunteer with We Don’t Waste (not including setting up and breaking down the market, which everyone works together on).

You can work the check in table. That is verifying that the participants have a reservation, and checking them in to the system so we can keep track of how many families we’ve served (an average market serves 400 families, 2,000 - 3,000 people). 

You can work the food tables where customers shop, making sure that the tables are stocked, and that customers take the right amount of each item (every item has a limit to ensure that all participants have the opportunity to shop the item).

You can work the market entrance and assign families that need a shopping cart to a volunteer working a cart. Lastly, you can volunteer to work a shopping cart, which involves following a person or family through the market, helping load their items into the cart, pulling the cart for them, and then following them to their car or house (when its close) and unloading the items for them.

Carts is the job I most prefer.

I prefer it for two reasons. One, it is the most active and physically demanding of all the jobs. It requires 2.5 hours of constant moving, walking, and occasional lifting.

Second, I love it because it gives me the opportunity to interact with the people who come to our markets, and it allows me to get to know a little bit about them.

The demographics of the people who come to our markets is diverse. Young and old. Singles and families. Citizens and immigrants. Housed and unhoused. And everything in between. The question I ask most people is “where are you from.”

A young man with his baby girl from Afghanistan, in America attending college.

A very young girl rom Spain, shopping for her whole family who presumably couldn’t make it to the market because they had to work.

A mother and grandmother from Ethiopia.

A young girl born in Colorado, but whose parents immigrated from Kenya.

A young man no older than me with a baby girl who told me he walked from Venezuela with his wife (his daughter he priorly exclaimed was born in Colorado). It took them 2 months, and they had to cross the dreaded Darién Gap.

An elderly overweight woman from Colorado with health complications.

A family from Panama.

A 37 year old man from Vietnam, who’s lived in America for 10 years.

A lady from El Salvador who’s been in America for 30 years, in Colorado for 20 of them.

A young unhoused couple and their dog, from Colorado, living out of their car.

A Native American Man and his wife.

Two friends, a male and female, the woman carrying her beautiful 7 month old baby girl, who came to America from Egypt 2 years ago.

An elderly woman from Colorado shopping for herself, her 18 yr old grandson, his 17 year old girlfriend, and their infant. All of whom live with her.

A handful of families from various parts of Mexico.

A young American woman with 5 kids, 3 of whom are special needs.

These are the people we serve. These are the people whose lives we make a little bit easier by providing them with free food and baby supplies (WeeCycle partners at all We Don’t Waste Markets to provide free diapers, formula, and occasional extras such as winter coats, blankets, toys, and books for children). These are the people who we make feel a little bit more welcomed, by being kind and offering our help to them.

And in turn they are kind, generous, and grateful whenever they are at our markets.

These are the people I get to know just a little bit whenever I work a shift. And these are the people that remind me that no matter where you come from in the world, or what your hardship is, that all you want is to be fed, cared for, and welcomed into society.

And these are the people that remind me that every effort by the news, politicians, and lobbying groups, to make us think otherwise, is absolute horse shit.

What does an expiration date on food actually mean?

I got these yogurts, with a “Jan 29 2025” expiration date, from a food drive I participated in on February 7th.

“Expired” Yogurt

They were left over at the end of the drive, and given their “Jan 29th Expiration Date,” I took a case of 18 home with me for fear that at some point, some misguided government rule or regulation would force these perfectly good yogurts to be thrown away. As I write this on February 21st, I’m still eating them. In fact, I had one not long ago for breakfast.

This was the second food drive I had been a part of in as many weeks, and at each one there was a full palate of yogurts being given away. Everything we give out at our markets is food that was recovered through partnerships with grocery stores, retail stores, restaurants, and bakeries. All of the food we recover and distribute would have otherwise been thrown away. For reasons like “past due.”

A palate of recovered yogurt being distributed at our market

The customers who attend our markets are a mix of locals and migrants, young and old, families and singles, who all share a common struggle: food insecurity.

Luckily for our community, and our planet, organizations now exist who intercept “food waste” and divert it from the landfill and into peoples homes. Over 50 million people in the U.S. experience food insecurity every day (many of them are children), and many millions more struggle with nutrition insecurity (not getting the nutrition they need). And decomposing food in landfills is one of the leading causes of climate change. It emits a gas called methane, which is arguably more deleterious to our environment than carbon dioxide.

Recovering food and distributing it for free at our markets kills two birds with one stone.

But so when we think about expired food, or food past its “Best Buy” date, what does that actually mean? Does it mean we should avoid it at the grocery store, or throw it out if it’s in our refrigerator or pantry? Usually the answer is no. Expiration dates typically indicate food quality, not safety.

Here are a few definitions that I learned from the non-profit I volunteer with, that can help guide your decision making. 

• Sell by date: How long the store can display the product.

• Use by date: The last date that the product is at peak quality.

• Best before date: The best date for flavor and quality
  

I still have a few Jan 29th yogurts, and a few Feb 3rd yogurts from a different batch, in my refrigerator, and I fully intend on eating all of them. Each morning when I pop one open I give it the sensory test, which is the best way to determine if food is safe to eat.

Does it look ok? ✅ 

Does it smell ok? ✅ 

Does it taste ok? ✅ 

If everything checks out, then I’m good to enjoy my food, that was previously destined for the dumpster.