Mysterious Dumpster Diving at Union St. Union Market

Image via UnionMarket.comWe heard from a friend who regularly walks by Union and 6^th Avenue around 9pm on Wednesdays that there were some unusual doings outside Union Market, and we did a brief interview.

Tipster: There are 3 or 4 women wearing headlamps and going through the garbage cans outside the market. They take uneaten discarded food out and bag it. Last time I was there, one of them had a stack of those prepared salads in those plastic clam-shell food containers.

FIPS: how are they dressed, were they “street people”?

Tipster: no, they were dressed “normally.”

FIPS: and how old were they?

Tipster: I don’t know – 30s maybe?

And then just this week, I ran over there to see for myself what the hell was up. I must’ve just missed the garbage picking, because there were, I think, 4 women – no headlamps -- gathered by the 6^th avenue side of the store, each with several plastic shopping bags. At least one of them had a bike. Three of them seemed to be in their 20s, maybe, while the fourth looked to be an older lady. I think they noticed my unsubtle spying, and I felt like an asshole.

So what’s up, I wonder. Might they be freegans -- folks who live largely on uneaten discarded food? Or are they collecting for a soup kitchen? Considering the whole Muffin Stump Controversy of 1997, wherein Rebecca de Mornay is outraged at the suggestion that the homeless would eat muffin stumps, I assume soup kitchens don’t accept discarded food, but what do I know? Why don’t you google that for me?

Or is there another explanation/scenario we haven’t thought of?