A care worker 'sickened' by waste says she has eaten for free for a whole month by 'waiting around bins' outside supermarkets - rescuing hundreds of pounds worth of fresh products about to be thrown away. 'Freegan' Jill Bennett claims she eats three meals a day without spending a penny as well as donating heaps of food to her local community since she started waiting outside supermarkets for leftover stock to be thrown out.
The 62-year-old spotted a supermarket worker binning more than ten bags worth of food including fresh fruit, veg, meat and ready meals and was 'sickened' at the thought of it going in the bin. So she took it home with her where she was shocked to discover she had retrieved more than £200 of edible grub.
Horrified at the thought of fresh food being thrown away so often, Jill began waiting outside shops at 'throwing out time' every Sunday to intercept the worker before they disposed of the items. For the last month, Jill has lived solely on the produce she finds, dining on lamb chops, whole chickens, ready meals, curries, apple pies and fancy chocolates.
Jill, from Northampton, East Midlands, said: "I've eaten for free for a month now and I've eaten better, fresher food than I've ever eaten. I eat fresh food every day. Yesterday I had scrambled eggs on toast, all free, for lunch I had potato, spinach and tomato curry, the only things I had myself were oil and spices and in the evening, I had roasted vegetables and couscous and apple pie.
"Every day I eat really well and I've got piles of fresh fruit and veg. I find meat, lamb chops, whole chickens, ready meals, cakes, chocolate, fresh fruit and veg, all in date and every week, that's what it is. I don't take things that are out of date or go in old bins for old food. All the food would have been sold ten minutes earlier.
"All this food is being thrown away every single day in every single shop and it's criminal. There's food poverty, food waste and people can't afford to pay their bills and eat. Probably five minutes away from them the shops are throwing fully good food away and then we get the government saying there isn't a problem here, people don't know how to cook or budget. It makes me sick.
"It got me thinking that this is happening in every single shop in every town, every city." Jill was doing her weekly food shop at her local supermarket when she just happened to spot an employee about to throw out more than ten bags worth of goods and decided to intervene.
The worker handed the food over and Jill was 'gobsmacked' to find more than £200 worth of food yet to go out of date. Every Sunday Jill collects at least two bin bags full of in date food and takes it home to share with her community.
Jill said: "I went to my local shop and as I was walking in a member of staff was coming out with a whole load of food in bin bags. I thought 'surely they're not going to throw that out' so I followed her. I stopped her, asked her if I could have it and she gave it to me. I hadn't ever done it before. There were around 10 bin bags full of food. When I looked, I thought 'bloody hell'.
"I was gobsmacked, I was disgusted and thrilled and excited. I was really pleased to be able to save the food and to share it. There was too much for me to take home.
"I went to another supermarket in the next village. I went in the bin that time and found about £200 worth of chocolates and flowers that had been thrown away. All the chocolates were in date and all the flowers were fresh so I came back to where I live and I gave them all away.
"Everyone was very excited. I went back the next week and waiting at 3.30pm for throwing out time and the manager came out and he was about to throw it in the bin so I got out of my car and asked him if he was binning it, he gave it to me and said he hates throwing all the food away.
"Ever since then, I've gone back at 3.30pm, waited for them and taken the food. I saved about £100 this month that I would have spent on food, I've also shared four times as much of that with my local community."
Jill is showing off her eye-opening hauls in the hope of highlighting how much food goes to waste and encourage supermarkets to cut down. She said: "It's not everyone's cup of tea to wait around a bin but it's every supermarket. People need to know that they can do this on a practical level. A lot of the food I haven't scavenged, I've been given because I've asked for it.
"It's disgusting that this amount of food is being thrown away by shops around the country. For me this is a very practical thing and political. I eat for free and eat really well but I'm passionate and sickened by all this food waste and really believe something needs to be done about it.
"Especially in this day and age when people are really struggling with paying their bills and food."
