My methods included extensive literature review. The bulk of my arguments relied on
theoretical points of gift theory and political deconstructions of consumption, and perceptions of
garbage as provision. I primarily used the AnthroSource and Web Of Science databases for my
sources. I sought out writings where the majority of their focus included the terms: freeganism,
dumpster-diving, garbage, and food. My searches turned up limited articles specifically on
freeganism and/or dumpster-diving [Alex Barnard’s ethnography on New York freegan
dumpster-divers; Nicole Eikenberry & Chery Smith’s survey of food insecurity and dumpsterdiving]. Gift theory came into play when I found difficulty in trying to consider the grander
forces that set the diving activities into effect; sifting through melanges of theory, I looked to
Marcel Mauss on exchange and gifting. I decided to use Mauss to provide an interpretation on
the power exchanges involved in viewing diving bounty distribution by way of sharing. Also
important to my arguments was tracking out articles on consumption for getting at a display of
practice among divers. For this I included writings from David Graeber and Daniel Miller. To
discuss healthism and its relationship with neoliberalism I referred to Julie Guthman’s book on
food justice and obesity. In situating receivers of food through analysis of otherwise, I thrum
with Elizabeth Povinelli’s engagement with sacrificial love discourses as a sacrificial relation
between actants of social foodscapes.
Wasted Food to Identity
Eikenberry & Smith’s article on dumpster-diving as a means to obtain food2, touches on
dumpster-diving as an activity in two low-income communities in Minnesota. The pools were on
homeless peoples who used dumpster-diving as one of their main sources of food. It largely
addresses food insecurity and how it affects people’s ability to [afford] food. Food insecurity
refers to anxieties that occur when adequate food (or food sources) are unavailable/unattainable.
Poverty was linked to this insecurity, but it was not the sole association that experienced lack of
food. Other groups affected by this included mid to high-income households (factors presented
were also heterogeneous). Despite the implementation of food assistance programs to alleviate
this issue, barriers to eligibility and other processes resulted in decreasing populations of users of
such services (Eikenberry et al. 2005).
As for homeless people, one of the factors the authors talk about as to why food
insecurity is such a hindrance to homeless people is that they lack kitchens to prepare foods that
could be attainable through food shelves/stamps. What stood out to me was the piece towards
the end before the discussion section where a distinction was made over buying food versus
‘getting it’ (Eikenberry et al. 2005). As varied as the homeless groups were, their commonality
was that they had all engaged in consuming food from dumpsters. The main reason for doing the
diving was the same: hunger. Hunger is the driving force for these people who say that they
“resort to diving” when they are starving and there are no other options. That said, many of the
people who accessed the wasted food were not homeless, rather, many were living in public
housing. This camouflaging (Povinelli 2011) of hunger then brackets through its own force of
emergence, relegating hunger as a social product.
A Dirty Adoption
Diving has been referred to as a willingly adopted lifestyle among people who are not
homeless (Barnard 2011). I am a bit disappointed that there was not much specificity regarding