Who is an ideal candidate to shop at FoodCommune?
​
You may be wondering... is FoodCommune for people like me?
​
GEOGRAPHIC PROXIMITY is the #1 criteria.
If you live within 3 miles of our location (368 Candler Rd, Atlanta, GA 30317), then you can come shop here without using much gas or time.
Of course, if you are ever passing through our area to do other things (work, shopping, appointments, friends or relatives to visit, errands to run) on a given Saturday afternoon, then you are equally qualified: Drop by and get some food!
If you live > 3 miles from our location ... AND you have no other reason to be nearby ... then we encourage you to be rescuing food in your area rather than polluting the air to move 2,000 lbs of metal (your car) to Candler Rd just to save some food.
Note: Please carpool whenever you can, when you attend FoodCommune, because minimizing resource (e.g. gas) usage is a good thing to do, ... and also bc our parking at Candler is limited: The entire property is just 2/3 of an acre -- way smaller than the parking lot of any Kroger or Publix, lol.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Besides GEOGRAPHIC PROXIMITY, the other most important criteria that makes you a good candidate for FoodCommune is: That you are already spending at least $30 of your money per week on food for yourself (your household) at Kroger, Publix, Aldi, Walmart, etc.
In any given week that you would be spending $30+ at a mainstream grocery store, come spend that $30+ at FoodCommune instead! You will get so much more food for your money: 2 to 10 times as much.
Or, alternatively, buy the same types and amounts of foods that you would have bought at the grocery store, but spend just $3 to $15 for that food instead of $30!
Or, alternatively, spend that $30 to buy DIFFERENT TYPES of foods (healthier!) at FoodCommune ... and feel better & live longer!
Whether you want to be
1) stretching your food dollars farther (GETTING MORE FOOD)
or
2) spending fewer of your household dollars on food (SPENDING LESS MONEY),
or
3) spending your food dollars more wisely (GETTING HEALTHIER FOOD) ...
then FoodCommune is the logical place for Atlantans to be doing their grocery shopping.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Other criteria that make you a good candidate for FoodCommune:
-- you care about the environment, the future of this society, your impact.
-- you are financially struggling, thus spending just $30 instead of $300 this week on food would make your life better/easier.
-- you are hungry, ... and/or other people in your household are hungry ... because y'all have not been able to afford enough food in your recent trips to the grocery store. Come to FoodCommune: We will fill your carts and kitchens!
-- you are financially ok, but your heart is calling you to help people in need in Atlanta, but you don't really have room in your budget to do so. FoodCommune provides an AFFORDABLE way to provide groceries to others in need, say, to a mother with children who has fallen on hard times. YOU can be the safety net that this family needs! Either bring the food to them, or pay $30 for them to come shop and select exactly what foods they want to put into their 3 crates.
-- you are NOT picky about food. If a can is expired or a cantaloupe has some surface blemishes, no objections from you! You do NOT insist that your food be perfect: You do NOT need for your food to look pretty!
-- you have the availability (time) and willingness to process the produce that you get from FoodCommune: wash, peel, slice, cook, etc... perhaps even can or dehydrate.
-- you have the space to put the food that you get from FoodCommune, especially ample cubic feet in refrigerator and freezer.
-- you hate to see food being discarded.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Some questions to ask yourself:
Do you live or work within 3 miles of 368 Candler Rd, Atlanta, GA 30317?
Are you currently spending $30+ of your money per week on food for your household at mainstream grocery stores like Kroger, Publix, Aldi, Walmart, etc?
Do you want to be eating more food?
Do you want to be spending less money on food?
Do you want to be eating healthier?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you recycle?
Are you vegan for reasons other than your own health? Are you vegan because you generally view the consumption of meat to be a cruel and/or inefficient practice?
Do you get your clothes from thrift stores?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you struggle financially?
Do you want to be helping people who are struggling financially?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you eat the peels of mangoes and papayas and baked potatoes?
Do you think that a little mold on an edge of a block of cheese is no big deal -- just slice off that bit and eat the rest!
Do you know that BLACK SKIN on a plantain means that it is now the perfect ripeness?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you have more than 1 refrigerator in your house?
Do you have a separate freezer: either a stand-up freezer or chest freezer?
Do you own a dehydrator?
Do you know how to can?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you hate to see food being discarded?
Do you always clean your plate, or at least save any uneaten food to eat later? ... but never ever ever throw edible food into the trash can?
Do you disapprove of garbage disposals?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Do you generally prefer to support small (mom n pop), local businesses ... rather than corporations?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The more questions to which you answered YES, the more perfect of a fit you will be at FoodCommune! Welcome!
​
If you answered yes to most of these questions: congratulations, you may be a freegan! :)
​
What is freeganism? From Wikipedia:
Freeganism is an ideology of limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources, particularly through recovering wasted goods like food. The word "freegan" is a portmanteau of "free" and "vegan". While vegans avoid buying, consuming, using, and wearing animal products as an act of protest against animal exploitation, freegans avoid buying anything as an act of protest against the food system in general.
Freeganism is often presented as synonymous with "dumpster diving" for discarded food, although freegans are distinguished by their association with an anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist ideology and their engagement in a wider range of alternative living strategies.