We feed around 20 people ones a week. The food comes from dumpster, local Food bank and other donors. Even if we try to do our best in using food for free, we still need ones a time to buy spices, oil, flour, sugar, salt… Just the basic, you wouldn’t find in our kitchen any meat and we don’t buy any milk products or eggs.
Benefit concert is a way how to rise awareness and show people what we do and collect money for the most needed items. We had our concert a week ago and it was a great night full of music and food.
We had even prepared T-shirts with our own printed design which was made by Jane Jay as well as the picture on our poster. The T-shirts are very special because Jane and Hanka and Kuba made them at home and used second-hand T-shirts. You can still buy them by us, just contact us via Facebook.
We have invited for the concert Potmě, Tosiro and 0100. The last group 0100 didn’t even want any money for transport to Budweis. We are very grateful to all of them for they time and help to rise money for Food not Bombs. The final sum was 3200 Kc, which is enough for us at least for one or two years.
The leftovers were used for Saturday’s food distributing.
No waste as it should be. Thanks for your support ♥
“Night out” is an annually even of awareness-raising homelessness and it’s hard way of surviving in any kind of weather outside. It was hold this year from 24.11 to 25.11.2016 . You may know Night out from The USA and maybe also elsewhere else. The Czech one occur on a different day (in The USA – on first Tuesday of August and for Texas and Florida on the first Tuesday in October because of hot weather).
I went to such an even for the first time, I mean I don’t care about sleeping outside cause I did it many times but this supposed to be something else. It wasn’t just about me, I come with other people from Food Not Bombs České Budějovice and we provide free food 15 liters of hot cacao partly donated from Food bank (Potravinová banka Jihočeského kraje). That wasn’t our only contribution I had also a talk about food waste.
I would like to say that everything get smooth and there were no problems…BUT!
We found out that the organizers (charity) didn’t want to let homeless people in or they told them inside “take some food and go out”. We thought that it was inappropriate and that they argument, that they didn’t donate non-perishable food in value of 50 Czech crowns, was a pretty stupid reason. I got angry and I didn’t care anymore about how my talk will succeed. The Food bank coordinator offered to pay in food for every single homeless person. That was really nice gesture and I am happy for that. In the end we were forced to take our responsibility of he homeless people (otherwise they wouldn’t let them in and we think that we cannot close in front of a part of society). By the way…there were any problems with the homeless.
Finally, I got to the point of my 20 minutes talk, I got a microphone and my presentation. I was so careless and fearless I just knew that we stand up for the homeless and that made the moment. It was probably my best presentation ever…:).
We stayed there with my boyfriend over night (it wasn’t actually big deal, with a great sleeping backs as we had) as one-third of the people. They kept a big tent in the park where the event occurred so it was pretty comfortable.
I am sorry to say that the organizers didn’t respond to our negative feed back even later…
I was thinking about this project very hard, should I go there or is it against my conviction? I am speaking about nothing else than a food collection in a big scale. This one is every year in whole Czech Republic and help food banks to get food from common people. Food banks give all the donations away to the people in need as homeless, children’s homes and shelters.
That sounds pretty cool. The problem is that the food collection centers are in supermarkets. It is nice of people when they donate some food to people in need on the other hand, for the supermarkets is also nice that the people shop extra stuff there. For me is the biggest problem that this way is made bigger demand for food which is usually not wanted. I just think that supermarkets wouldn’t be so kind to let the collection happened there if it wouldn’t be good for them.
And my decision?
Was YES! I wanted to see it and maybe find out how bad/good is this kind of collection. The strongest argument for going there was that supermarkets could be more open-minded to donate regularly food near to expiration date to the food banks when they participate at the food collection day.
Totally 12 211 kg of collected food from 20 supermarkets!
That is the point!
I just want supermarkets to donate food which would be otherwise wasted.
I was there for few hours, it was fine but pretty exhausting. That doesn’t matter for me, I feel like I did something good for others and even get know the head of Food bank of South Bohemia . The best thing for me and the stuff that matter for me was that I started to cooperate with the Food bank and that is pretty awesome. For example tomorrow, there is an event “Night outside” to support homeless people. We will be there with Food Not Bombs České Budějovice and some of our food will be from the South Bohemia Food bank. I will have a talk there, keep your fingers crossed!
Do you remember the Public Fridge which I founded during my internship at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center? It is already more than one month since I left so I thought that It would be nice to bring some news.
The Public Fridge at SERC
The idea to make a Public Fridge started already when I was in Germany, cause there are Public Fridges everywhere, have look here! So it happened, I had two talks about food wasting and then I borrowed a college fridge from Pat (one of the senior scientists) to try it if it works for summer. And It did! It worked even better than I thought, we shared food every day and there was nothing wasted
.
The first tiny Public Fridge at SERC
People were worry how it will be with the Public Fridge after I left. Because I was sure that this is a right place for one and it worked so well I have found two people who could take care of it. The idea of reducing food waste supported from all of the sides so we have bought a new fridge for this purpose (just a weekend before I left).
Me with two fridges a first one and a new one!
Kim was so nice that she have sent me a new picture from October 3rd. It looks pretty well and I am really proud of all the people who make a difference and try to reduce food waste.
We have also a Public Fridge in Czech Budweis but it doesn’t work… it is not in the best place and people don’t know about it/ don’t have any extra food/ study somewhere else…. I would like to change it, make this Public Fridge works or start a new one at my University campus. More news? later!
Have you ever dreamed about having a bike which would be service-free and would be exactly on the place you need it? You know, when you go out in the evening and there is nothing just a long, boring and cold way home which takes forever and you don’t wish the entirely time nothing else than to have a bike….
You are not the only one who had this dream.
Rekola
Let me tell you about a guy Vítek Ježek who made your dream happened already in 6 cities and towns of Czech Republic (Praha, Brno, České Budějovice, Olomouc, (Pardubice) and Teplice). Yes, I’m speaking about Rekola, the bicycle sharing of reused bikes which are more or less from dumpster.
Rekola are a volunteer activity of bike-lovers who reuse donated bikes which were often broken and incomplete and repair them for the community of people who wants to take advantage of using bikes without caring of them.
1.You come to a bike/ find a bike via app/ SMS/ internet browser
2.Borrow the bike asking for code via app/ SMS/ internet browser
3. Use it for maximum of 3 hours and park whenever in the zone you want
4. In the end you just have to let others know where the bike is again via app/ SMS.
From the user point of view is the biggest magic in having a possibility of using all the pink Rekola bikes not only in your city but also in the rest of the Czech Republic. For me, it is like a magic, the bikes “repair themselves” and thanks to a good and caring community when is one lost many times is found by someone who care of this awesome project which cost you just a little bit of money.
From the serviceman point of view? Please ask my boyfriend he is probably in the Rekola workroom – today, tomorrow, the entirely week… cause the magic “repair themselves”:P
Bikesharing in Czech Budweis
I am a lucky one because Rekola are also in my home university town.
The service-team of Rekola CB
There are plenty of pink bikes everywhere ( exactly 55)and we have even 2 scooters with have the funniest names ever (sorry this is just for Czech – Copročmeč and Odražnožka) of course that bikes has also their own names and I am really pleased that there is one called Princess Lada (from well-known Czech fairytale).
Princess Lada a name of one bike
They have celebrated 1 year of existence on September 19th of Rekola CB. So I made a cake for the service-people who spend their free time caring of bikes.
Birthday cake for Rekola CB
Rekola in Czech Budweis had this season 12 700 borrowings and in all towns together are 80 551 borrowings (till 30. 9. 2016) and 2 401 users (at all 4 923 people tried Rekola).
Do you want more? I will tell you a secret, there are another 20 “pink-bike-bodies” (no idea what is the right name of it:D, probably “frames”) which will be early ready to go in the streets of Czech Budweis.
“Pink-bike-bodies” ready to be used
Stay tuned and you may get an opportunity to name new bikes on their Facebook sites.Never have to walk anymore, spread the idea to improve our transport system.
I am sorry for writing this post so late, my excuse is that I had so much work and some issue with my camera to get my photos of this event… Nevertheless I have left The USA, worked for a week in a lab at my home University in Czech Budweis and then spend almost 2 weeks in Scotland hiking the West Highland Way.
There were already many volunteers preparing late lunch for people in need and we joined them. FNB in DC is a lucky one because they don’t have to go dumpster diving for food anymore, they get almost all food from local donators and even better all the fruits and vegetables are in bio quality. This way they could offer healthy and nutritional food which taste awesome. It is also good that the most valuable and less accessible food is not wasted and could be used by this group. I am definitely going to ask for donations for FNB in Czech Budweis where we have to go for food in dumpster (I don’t expect any success cause these things don’t work in Czech Republic).
We have prepared vegetable soup with rice (it was quite spicy so rice was really needed), vegetable salad and fruit salad. We got also full bag of baked goods from Panera Bread. From all of the stuff we used was bought only rice and cups for servings because is hard to get any from free. (If you want to support your nearest FNB offer them cups for serving hot food, I can tell you that they would be happy!)
Serving healthy!
We have served our food at Franklin Square which is well-known for these activities – offering homeless people food, water and support. It was a really hot day nevertheless there were plenty of people who come during the afternoon.
Homeless for a purpose
From all of the people I met there I hope I will remember Steven who is already four years homeless not because he couldn’t work to pay an apartment but because he wants to be free. He doesn’t have vacations because he doesn’t need to ask anyone for a permission to have one. He could do whatever he wants, spend his time whenever and with whoever he wants. He doesn’t have any issue with any kind of drugs. He likes to read books from public libraries (also philosophic, historic etc. ) and work out. Such a good experience to meet him!
Steven, Daniela and Will
Will and Daniela have taken me back at SERC after a very lovely day. For the end I would like to give you a link on Will’s FB group Trash Empire which is a name of his upcoming movie about food waste. I am so excited to see it! So don’t worry you will get the full feedback.
Read how I was lucky to get known new people who do difference in food waste.
A week ago I was pleased when a Czech initiation Zachraň Jídlo posted on their Facebook page a video about an American guy Will Reid who spends $2.75 a year on food because he get all his food from dumpster. Look here!
Will Reid
Of course that I wanted to meet him really badly maybe as much as you wish to meet Brad Pitt/ Rihanna/ whoever else. He is not a person going just for free food but someone who as me want to point out food waste as an environmental problem and also a trouble of unrealistic expectations about our food (ugly doesn’t mean less valuable).
I post my latest post about “How to get over 100 donuts for free” on Facebook page of Food Not Bombs in Washington DC (I live now around 45 minutes by car from DC but without a car is DC still unreachable for me). Guess what! Will had answered me, I didn’t even know that he is from DC and also his wife Daniela which happened to be Czech. I was even more lucky when they offered to take me at Food Not Bombs event in DC last Saturday.
If you don’t know what the magical name “Food Not Bombs” means, do not hesitate and read about this movement in my post about Food Not Bombs in České Budějovice. I hope you feel some curiosity and want to see where is the nearest FNB because here is my answer: Go and help! they are everywhere ( for Czech Republic look here).
Food Not Bombs are all around the World!
Read more about Food not Bombs in DC in next post! I promise it will be as inspiring as all the people I met there are.
I wish you could feel how much ironical is this title…
“In less than eight months, we used more natural resources than the planet is able to produce in a 12 month period. For the remainder of 2016, we will be living on resources borrowed from future generations (WWF)”.
The Overshoot Day cames this year on August 8th, that happened in record time and also 5 days earlier than last year.
What do we actually overshoot?
We create more CO2 than the Earth is capable to bind, which lead to the Global warming
We use more water than could be renewed in one year
We cut more trees than could grow back to balance our demand
We use more land and soil which suffer caused by unsuitable usage
Oceans are overfished, there is no sustainable “eating of fishes”, the Earth and the ecosystems are devastated and not capable to renew fish population…
And you know what, there is a change every one of us could make. It is a change which could make our lives sustainable. Could you guess what it could be?
“Excuse me, do you have any leftovers you could donate? I try to reduce food waste.”
There is nothing as easy as to get over 100 donuts every night. Of course that you don’t pay for them either go in dumpster. Everything you need to do is to say this sentence at the right place and in the right time.
The right place is a bakery or fast food making goods which couldn’t be sold the other day. We have tried our lack in Dunkin’ Donuts and it worked very well. We got first time everything in one trash bag (without trash) and the other time even in boxes (not the most nature-friendly option, I know…).
The right time is just before they close. It means that you have to come 5 minutes before they close or right after the last customer leave the store.
13 boxes x 12 donuts in each = 156 donuts = over 150 USD
Bakeries and fast foods as Dunkin’ Donuts try to have full shelves of food even if it means that big part of it would be in the end wasted. Just because customers prefer to see full shop, just because it looks nicer even if it is an hour before close time.
Don’t be afraid to buy a last piece! You are the one who can make the difference.
P.S. What if you get all the donuts? Donate them, freeze them for later, make crumbs of them and use it for baking, share with other at work/ school/ friends/ Public Fridge/ Food Not Bombs.
80% of British people do not know what is a difference between “Used by date” and “Best by date” andyou don’t have to be from Great Britain to have the same problem (Zachraň Jídlo).
“Enjoy by date” – I feel free to enjoy my dumpster drink already a week after the “Enjoy by date”! P.S.: This date doesn’t make any sense because you don’t have any idea what does the date mean.
Dating of food may be here to protect consumers, but it doesn’t help us as much as it should because we don’t even understand the meaning of the dates ( Sell by date/ Best by date/ Used by date/ Enjoy by date and many others – especially in The USA) On the other hand people are so focused on dates on their products that they are not capable to distinguish between ripe banana and rotten banana. We have replaced our sense for good food by comfort and waste.
Banana could be even darker and still ok, just peel it and you will see.
“Used by 15/ 7/ 2016”
Food labeled with this date could be unsuitable for eating after passing the date and it could be also not save from healthy reasons. Using a product before expiring means eating it when it is on peak quality. Used by date could be usually found on meat, fish and processed food as cooked vegetable, fried chicken nuggets and many others, the date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product.
BUT! It doesn’t mean that the food turns to a poison one during first ten minutes of a new day 16/ 7/ 2016. There are no goblins in your fridge which would destroy your food right after expiration. You just have to be causes and use your senses – look, smell, taste before you dump.
“Best by 15/ 7/ 2016”
/ Best if used by/ Best if used before is a date recommending best flavor and quality but it is not a purchase or safety date. That means that eating food after “best by date” isn’t risky. Best by date usually used for long-lasting products as sugar, flour, cheese, yogurt and many others. Please do not through away food which is still fine for example sugar cannot expired at all.
“Sell by 15/ 7/ 2016”
Is a date for a store not even for customers. Sell by date means that products could be sold till this date. Sell by dates are far from the actually used by date. Example of sell by date could be eggs, which could be kept after purchase for 3 to 5 weeks (USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service).
How long could you store processed meat products?How long could you store fresh or uncooked meat and eggs?
Even if your food didn’t expired yet it could be bad already and that could be caused by inappropriate storage. So keep this in your mind and do your best, eat food as fresh as possible and you wouldn’t have any problems.
From Dumpster 