Mandy Hodges, who lives in Brisbane, is the mother of two boys. She worked at grocery stores and supermarkets for ten years and thought she was used to the waste of food.
One day, however, she watched a documentary about food waste, about how environmentalist Rob Greenfield lived on food thrown away by supermarkets. After watching the film, Mandy felt inspired, and then she made an amazing decision: from today on, she will start picking up food with her children in the dumpster!
She said: there are generally 100 boxes of chocolates on the shelves of Australian supermarkets, but it's not possible to sell them all. The rest of the chocolates that are still in the shelf life are thrown away.
For example, if they sell limited-edition products, products that have not been sold will be thrown away after the general time limit has passed.
Mandy found that this sort of garbage collection would reduce waste and save money. So she told her husband that she was going to the dumpster in the supermarket to pick up food. At first, her husband didn't support the decision, and even joked that if you were caught in the supermarket, I'd save you at home.
Mandy's 11-year-old son, Ethan, was excited about the decision and even offered to go to the supermarket's trash bin. Mandy and Ethan usually go to the dumpster an hour after the supermarket staff leaves, according to Mandy. She usually goes through the dumpster once a week, and most of the time she gets a good harvest.
They can find all kinds of canned, cereal, bread and even steak, as well as fruits and vegetables in good condition.
"for example, we've found 150 boxes of chocolate bars, 32 drinks, 50 mangoes, 24 cans of Coca-Cola, 15 kilograms of carrots and a dozen bags of beans."
Mandy said she once even made a roast mutton meal on what she had picked up from a supermarket garbage can. Now, her husband will also eat the kiwi fruit she picked up from the garbage can.
Now, the Mandy can save $200 a week on ingredients and $10400 a year. And Mandy says they never get sick from eating the food they picked up in the trash.
How do you feel after reading it?
