Bare, I'm gonna try to give direct answers..
B: I am curious though, how does he find the dumpsters that glean the most? how does he know which ones?
M: He uses Google maps satelite pics to see the rear of buildings to see if they have dumpsters or compactors, and if he can't tell, he'll drive around the building and look.
B: do the cops ever bother him about it? I guess it depends on day or night.
M: yes, sometimes the cops tell him to move on, but he's not doing anything illegal, and he doesn't make a mess like some dumpster divers do.
B: Is it possible to know how long the food has been lying there?
M: Sometimes you can't be sure. But the produce he brings home isn't rotten, but might have some bruises (the chickens don't care). Meat he only brings home if he finds it the day it's tossed out and it's still cold or frozen. The packaged stuff, he looks at the date, if the package is opened or slashed, he leaves it, if the package is still sealed and still in best by date or very close to it, he'll bring it home. If we don't eat it the chickens will.
B: I am guessing you might live in a place that's not too hot of a climate in order for the food to still be frozen, not thawed or rotten.
M: We are in Northern AL. and we bring home a lot less dumpster stuff in the summer months.
B:I recall someone telling me that Trader Joes every night, puts out all their unsold fresh flowers....
I would love those bouquets...
M: I've never been a big fan of cut flowers, but my son does see some now and then. He doesn't bring them home because he doesn't know which are safe for the chickens.
B: I suppose you need to be tall to get inside a dumpster...
so many things rolling around in my head....lol
M: He is tall 6'4". but when my kids were very young I dumpster dived too, and I'm only 5'3". I didn't get in the dumpsters very often. It's an experience, and most folks are repulsed by it. I NEVER tell my DIL where I got all of the things that we've given to my grandson or the art that I gave her for her new home.
B:I live in an area that has a lot of social services....wealthy blue state area and right down the street from my home...there's a food pantry...they take donations, but also once a month they distribute boxes for like $20...and people sign up for them, no proof of anything required.
A box will contain fresh fruit and veggies, frozen cheaper parts of meat like turkey legs, meatloaf, frozen veggies, eggs, all fresh stuff....and they really do a big thing for Thanksgiving.
I've never gone because we here could never finish a box before the fresh stuff would be spoiled and my freezer is too small to fit all the frozen items.
M: I'm in a very very RED state, no social services that aren't Federally mandated and no consumer protections at all. But I was born and raised in CA, which is the polar opposite. It's been a HUGE adjustment. Two of my children left CA and sought their lives and families in AL, probably mostly by accident, and when I got hurt at work and couldn't make enough mystery shopping to keep my home in CA when I was 55 years old, I sold everything and moved here because that's where they were and where my grandsons were. My older grandsons are now adults and living in GA. And I now have a brand new shiny 3 year old grandson who will be 4 in March. And another one on the way, or at least that's what I've been told.