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Meet the freegans

Overview

Not all garbage should be thrown away -- at least according to the Freegans, a group of dumpster-divers who live off unspoiled, discarded food.

Vocabulary

more than meets the eye (idiom) - more than you can see
affluent- wealthy, rich
vegan- a vegan is a vegetarian who also does not eat or use any animal products
salvage - save, repair and keep
dumpsters - large garbage cans
haul - to carry or drag away
squishy - soft and squeezable
guacamole - a Mexican dip made from avocados
produce (n) - fruit and vegetables

in abundance - plentiful, easily found

stir fry - a Chinese dish made in a wok

ridiculous - crazy, silly

massive - very big

show definitions

Quick Quiz

Answer the following:

1 According to freegans, ____ of the food on sale in supermarkets in the US goes unsold. 40%
2 Who were the chicken strips for?Leah's dog
3 One of the freegans found ______ in abundancebread
4 According to Leah, one in ___ kids goes hungry in New York City every night. three

answers

Discussion

Would you have dinner with the freegans?

Do you waste a lot of food?

Are you good at saving money?

Talk about some ways that you try to save money.

Learning Points

1 The word freegan is a combination of two words - 'free' and 'vegan'. Combining words is quite common in English. For example:

brunch - breakfast and lunch
sheeple - sheep and people; sheeple are people who do not think for themselves
blog - a combination of web and log

2 The phrase 'out of necessity' is useful for describing a situation where people had no choice in something

"Leah and Tate Jones became freegans out of necessity"