Comments on: Scrounging for Answers

By: Thad

Thad — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 23:09:08 +0000

I never went to Reed, but had a friend who did. While I didn’t use the word “scrounge” I have been doing this for years when I am very hungry and see a table that has not been bussed. I’ll bring a used plate to my table. This often embarrasses my dining party, but inevitably someone on my party will ask for some fries or a brea stick.

Once, while waiting at a table for a half-hour and yet to even have my order taken, I pounced on a fried fish platter at another table as soon as the patrons paid there check and abandoned it. I was greeted by applause and cheers from almost the entire room in the restaurant!

Now I live in housing co-op that supplements our food with dumpster diving.

Kudos to Reed!

Thad, Austin, TX

By: grrlpup

grrlpup — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:50:16 +0000

I was at Reed ’88 through ’92. Scrounging may have been less codified then (I didn’t scrounge so I’m not sure). But there was accepted etiquette for non-scroungers too, which included warning the scroungers if you had a cold so they could avoid your germy food.

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:04:52 +0000

I scrounged for two years at Reed. I still miss it. I am often tempted to ask the table next to me at a restaurant for their leftovers when they’re just going to throw them out. I never got sick scrounging, I think a little exposure to everything may indeed boost the immune system. I also felt like I ate healthier — a little of this, a little of that, never too much of anything. Now that I’m on staff at Reed I’m forbidden from scrounging… but I am still occasionally tempted. Eating standing up with your friends is very fun and social. The year after I got on a board plan they had the first “scrounger trading cards” with people’s favorite foods, nicknames, superpowers, and dietary preferences.

By: janie

janie — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 22:47:59 +0000

on one of my first visits to the Commons in 1993 I saw a term paper that had been left behind titled ‘Feeding Habits of Guppies” … when I paid for my lunch and walked around the corner I had my first encounter with ‘scroungers’. In my 17+ years at Reed I still think of them as guppies. I still share my left-over lunch and pick up an extra salad order or sandwich for them to share depending on my onw purse-string budget … a single mothers common sense of feeding hungry kids at home continues thru my policy of not having hungry starving students at work either.

By: '01 Reedie

'01 Reedie — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:16:09 +0000

I was never a scrounger. I always had a meal plan or dated someone with a meal plan, but to this day I still ALWAYS get my leftovers packaged up at a restaurant when I’m out of town and pass them along to a homeless person on the street. I almost started a riot over two servings of Old Spaghetti Factory ice cream outside the homeless shelter in Spokane a few years back.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:57:38 +0000

I’m a scrounger alum (Reed ’06), and while at work near lunch time I thought it was be interesting to google about scrounging. Found this article. I scrounged for 3 years and loved it. It was def. “in college” for me, but many happy memories. Beware the liquid scrounge!…except monster cups of chocolate milk. Cheers.

By: Tamara

Tamara — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 12:33:57 +0000

I’m a former Reedie that scrounged for a year and it was great.

I also get very sad that I cannot scrounge in public.

Wouldn’t it be great to have an association of scrounge alums who have meet-ups at cafeterias across the country? What’s the critical mass you need for social acceptability?

By: Aviva

Aviva — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 01:51:31 +0000

Beans and Rice are a perennial favorite. I know that when people offer to buy us food that we normally go for beans and rice unless the donor insists on something more expensive. However, leftovers are our favorite.

Something you did not witness while you were at Reed is the ‘quarantine’ bowl. When a scrounger is sick they will avoid the scrounge as that is asking for trouble. When we are mostly better we use the quarantine bowl. We use two forks, or a fork and knife to cut the food. Then we put the food in our bowl. Following this we use our eating fork to eat from said bowl to avoid contamination. As much as scrounging seems to aid our immune systems, we’d rather not contaminate it with our known colds.

Katy, we’d love invitations. I, personally, would love to see Reed(ies) and our surrounding community interact with each other more.

-Aviva R.

By: Sustaino

Sustaino — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:29:38 +0000

Great post! I’ve been following your blog for a while. Since I’m from Cleveland, I can relate to your blog in that we have high poverty rates here and the Cleveland FoodBank has been working hard. Given your research, are there some cities or areas that waste food more than others? I would assume that bigger cities like Miami, NYC, LA and Chicago would be in the mix. Curious to know your thoughts…

Regards,
Sustaino
http://www.sustaino.blogspot.com

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 18:38:30 +0000

KWS, I think some of the Reedies might be at your door as I type this…

Muffin, I don’t think anyone in any country *wants* to eat rice and beans every day. So that’s why you’re a scrounger?

Janes’_kid, sharing food within a family is a little less risky in terms of the germs. But that’s true, it seems like every family has a “Finisher.” Guess who plays that role in my family??