Taking leftover food is all about priorities, a delicate balance of factors such as size and weight, leaky odours, a tolerance for looks from people on the MRT and fridge space.
The writer of this article braves stares and join members from Food Rescue @ Events, a telegram group, to bag leftovers at a church wedding reception. The telegram group has over 3,400 members.
Thousands of tonnes of uneaten food are thrown away in Singapore every year, so this kind of organised collection makes sense.
The rescue groups, by making it a formal arrangement between givers and takers, soothe the stigma of leaving food behind.
Given the choice of two embarrassments – leftover food from over-catering or too little food for guests from under-catering – most organisations opt to over-cater. Then they let the caterers haul away their mis-estimation in bin bags.
After this church wedding reception, the writer went to another food rescue location at a corporate party in the Newton area, from which he got a tub of palak paneer, cottage cheese in a spinach sauce.
Although official rescue groups frown upon the behavior of “dumpster diving” for all sorts of reasons, the principle of reducing food waste is still the main reason why certain food rescuers persist in the act.
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Source: The Straits Times, 10 November 2019