It's dark and chilly outside, but the lights are bright and the air is warm in the kitchen. The delicious smell of vegetable soup and toasted French bread wafts through the air. Oh, can't forget the double chocolate baked goods seeping from the oven. The crackle from the record player keeps a beat with the simmering pots and pans on the stove top. Friends are laughing, sipping wine, and sharing spoonfuls of each other's culinary masterpieces. Everyone is lending a helping hand, peeling fruit for juices, stirring pots, and checking the oven every so often to make sure dessert isn't overcooked. No, this isn't a dream. Nor is it Thanksgiving. And one of your friends didn't win the Safeway lottery either.

All this food was found in a dumpster.

Would you still want to eat this dumpster found feast?

The real question is: Why wouldn't you? Yes, it's technically from a dumpster, but it's fresh from the store, where customers are willing to pay top dollar for the shiniest, apple - not the one with the bruise.

Commonly referred to as "dumpster diving", an act all too familiar in San Francisco as is, people young and old can be found rummaging through one man's or store's trash, and transforming trash into their own personal treasure. From food to furniture, there is practically no limit to the amount of sweet finds a person can come across in this city.

"A lot of times dumpsters are left open and food is placed in such a way that you can come and get it," says Jean Yaste, a frequent diver who enjoys the perks of finding crates of mangoes and turning them into smoothies for breakfast.

She was introduced to diving a couple of months ago by some friends, and has been feasting with them ever since. Jean's motto is, "It tastes so much better when it's free."
Daniel Garcia agrees. A veteran diver and Bay Area resident, Daniel feels fortunate enough to live in a "pseudo-industrial" neighborhood, The Dogpatch, where furniture fabrication warehouses, bakers, produce markets, and bike shops provide plenty of appetizing leftovers.

Both Jean and Daniel admittedly don't survive off of their finds, rather do it as a hobby, and are practically unable to walk past a dumpster without taking a peek inside.

Free food is nice, but there are other reasons behind this trash revolution. It's the act of recycling, and finding a use for things that others don't want anymore.

"That's why there's a place [of trash] larger than Texas swirling around in the Pacific Ocean, maybe even two at this point," Jean laments.

Instead of letting the trash find its way into overflowing landfills, or the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco divers are doing their best to curb the never ending waste of consumerism.
Some have found more creative and helpful ways of doing so. Bay Area organization Food Not Bombs dives for food in dumpsters all around the city, even receiving donations on occasion, and cooks up vegan meals for the homeless and the hungry.

Odessa Powers, a student at San Francisco State, began her involvement with Food Not Bombs about three months ago. Her job is to coordinate how her kitchen will get food and supplies for their scheduled meal distribution at the UN Plaza at Civic Center once a week.

"On Saturdays there's a set number of people who are there waiting for us at 3:30. That's how they get their food for the day," she explains. "We take the food that's not being used and that's perfectly fine, and transfer it to people who need it."

Rainbow Grocery is happy to oblige, donating a 30lb bag of beans and rice once a month, enabling Odessa and other volunteers to cook up and serve a pound for every day.
Theo, a Food Not Bombs volunteer for about eight months running, originally showed up at the doors of the organization's 16th and Mission kitchen homeless and hungry. His fellow volunteer, Eddie, has been involved for about two years. Both agree that although they are involved with an important cause, it's not the "end all be all to hunger."

"You can't live off of rich people's trash forever," says Eddie.

"It's not this completely sustainable thing, we have to learn how create community gardens and plant food for ourselves," he further explains.

"But for the time being, I'll live off of rich people's trash."