A Long Month

Hello again. It's only been a month (not an unprecedented lapse in time between posts), but it feels like I haven't written on my blog for a year. A lot has been happening in my life in the first month of 2011. I've been sorting through emotional changes and decision making.

But I'm still a freegan. :)

The biggest change in my personal life is that I am planning to leave the LACW at the end of my second year commitment, which puts my departure around the beginning of summer. It's time for me to hit the road again. I am grateful to the LACW, my many friends and the city of Los Angeles for the fantabulous two years I have lived here. But I have to move on.

Another big change is that one of our hospitality guests, Michael Cooksey, passed away last week. It was the first close experience of death for many of our community members, including me.

I will expound upon these points soon, I promise. But for now I had to merely touch base.

Until next time,

And may the dumpster gods bless you. :)

Bittersweet Christmas + New Freegan Video!

Christmas was bittersweet this year, with the knowledge that several of our friends will likely not make it to Christmas next year. At the LACW, we make our house a home for people who are near the end of their lives. Many poor individuals have moved off the streets and into the hospitality house to live out their last days (or to live many years, too).

Right now, we have a man named Mike who is suffering from a malicious tumor in his jaw. His doctor told him that he may not see Christmas this year (thankfully he did!). We learn from him, and those in the past, how to die gracefully. Mike is a gracious and friendly man. We pray for his comfort.

In other news, a friend of Eric's and mine has directed and produced a mini-documentary about freeganism. The video follows a Los Angeles Dumpster Diving Meetup event and included interviews with Eric and me.

Watch the film here. This link is only useful to Facebook users. You have to sign in to see the video. I will post a public link or embed the video as soon as I get that information.

Dumpster Diving at the Bloomington Catholic Worker

Almost every Catholic Worker community has its own newsletter, and receives the newspapers of all the other communities. I hardly ever find the time to read the newsletters, but every once in a while a front page or an article catches my eye. This time, one of my fellow community members pointed out this article in the "Bloomington Christian Radical", because it made them think of me. I think it's fantastic and worth sharing.

On Dumpster Diving  by Laura Ertmer

Dumpster diving is not about trash. It is about waste.

Esteban grew up on the streets of La Paz. He knows about trash. It is a last resort for the homeless - offering little more than bones and other food scraps. In Lima, basureros pock through mountains of trash to salvage tin cans and plastic bottles to resell. In Buenos Aires, cartoneros collect and recycle cardboard. In Bloomington, we too collect from what has been discarded - but ours is a privileged scavenging. We are feasting on the absurdity of mass food production and mega stores. America is confused about trash. The wealth - and shame - of our nation is reflected in the abundance of usable, edible and wearable items that stores throw away.

We are exuberant, energetic dumpster divers. There is no delight quite as wholesome as salvaging pounds of food from the garbage. Imagine when the beam of your headlamp first plunges into the darkness of the bin and illuminates a radiant red bell pepper.  And then it falls on another. And then a yellow one. Oooh! Bags of apples. Broccoli. Ah, and there's some Brie! A fish fillet! A lime! A meal begins to take shape when the light shines upon some wine a peach pie. In this big metal box behind the grocery store, we forage for food and come out with a feast.

We win! We eat for free!! And yet, in our joy we recognize that this is sick. This system of production, consumption and waste is sick. Why are beautiful apples and fresh organic milk discarded? Have we lost all common sense? Do we not see food for food? Do we see food only as profit? Do we expect perfection in produce?

There is always more food than we can take. And we take all we can. We distribute it to friends. We throw dinner parties. We dry fruit, can tomatoes, pickle cucumbers. It's not enough. The dumpster is always full. Go. Take your flashlight. Drive around back and look in the bin. You will see the absurdity of the system. YOU can eat for free. This is the truth about the trash. If we ignore the waste of the system, we let it become trash. If we reclaim the waste, we eat for free.

America's food system is messed up. We do not pretend that we are changing it. We are, in fact, relying on the absurdity of the system for our sustenance. While we continue to to harvest from the dumpsters, we need to call attention to the waste. We need to ask stores to reduce their waste - or to redistribute their "waste" to social service organizations that depend on food donations. It is the cost we should assume when we are nourished by an immoral system. We cannot become complacent. This waste is wrong even when we benefit from it. 

 

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to wish all of my readers a happy holiday tomorrow. Make the best of it, even though it's based on a twisted interpretation of colonialism.... ;)

I'm going to have a great time. Here at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker, we have invited many of our guests from the streets and personal friends to come to our big house for a giant lunch time meal.

And a big news flash: "Suleo" (Zero Currency Man) is currently in LA, for the first time! I cannot wait to see him.

Things I've Been Up To

As usual, life has been busy since my last post. Big events and everyday life eat up my time as we pass through the moments we all live in.

"Jesus Was a Street Server"
from our LACW website:

On September 30th we joined the Los Angeles Community Action Network and other groups dedicated to serving the poor of Skid Row, in a protest/street meal calling for an end to police harassment of street servers. Delicious food was served and a good time was had by all! Check out our photos.

 Reverend Billy and the "Stop Shopping Gospel Choir" at RedCat theater

I finally got the chance to see this theatrical, anti-capitalist genius in action. Eric and I went to see Rev. Billy and his choir on their "Earth-a-lluia" tour stop in Los Angeles Thursday night. The odd thing is that we paid $12 for tickets... but the Rev embraced the irony with humor instead of shying away from it. From his website,  before the show:

The Choir and Rev kick off our tour in the Disney Hall. This church was founded on the discovery that MICKEY MOUSE IS THE ANTI-CHRIST so please come help us embrace our contradictions. (http://www.revbilly.com/events/cali-tour)

Eric and I fully enjoyed the hilarious and inspiring show, which focused more on environmental issues than on those of consumerism.

And here's an interesting article about him (including a little background on who and what he is), that I read in the LA Times that day: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/21/entertainment/la-et-reverend-billy-20101021

CW Reflection

Thankfully, I did get some rest this weekend. Ah, I enjoyed sleeping in until almost noon (though I didn't get to sleep until 2am anyhow) on Monday. The weather also decided to cooperate with my intentions to rest that day. I took it easy the whole day, including a lovely walk in the light rain. This mildly stormy weather is a welcome break from the record breaking 110+ degree weather we had last week (so says the Oregonian typing this blog). Unfortunately, our homeless friends may not enjoy either option...

I wanted to share something I read today. This comes from the quarterly newsletter of the St Francis Catholic Worker House in Chicago, but it accurately describes the LACW House (at which I live and work), too.

St Francis House is a house of hospitality in the tradition of the Catholic Worker Movement. The movement was begun in 1933 by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. It is based on communal living with people struggling with poverty and homelessness, and nonviolent resistance to war, injustice and materialism. There are 150-200 Catholic Worker Houses in the US and other countries, but there are no organizational ties to the Roman Catholic hierarchy and Catholic Worker houses are not dependent on it for support. Each CW house is run solely by the people who work there, most of whom live in community at the house itself. In most cases community members need not be Catholic.

St Francis house practices the work of hospitality by taking in single adults who need a place to stay. Decisions are made by a group of people called workers who share the responsibilities of managing the house and are committed to the CW movement's ideals. They have no titles, they need not have professional credentials and they are NOT paid. St Francis house is supported entirely by personal donations and earnings; it receives no government, Church or corporate funding. We are not recognized by the government as a non-profit organization, thus donations to the house are not tax-deductible. We reject the government control that comes with the non-profit status and we feel that federal taxes are best not paid at all because of the violent use to which much tax money is put. 

Don't Call Us Saints

Last weekend, the ladies of the LA Catholic Worker community (including me) went on their retreat weekend known as "Women Walking for Peace". It's a funny name for the weekend, since we only walked for an hour on Sunday morning. We did walk for peace, though! It was akin to our weekly vigil (Wednesday Peace March) around the federal building complex in downtown LA. We walked down the thoroughfares of suburbia in sunny Santa Clarita that weekend, holding fast to our anti war signs. Drivers honked and waved and flipped us off.

Holding signs to protest the wars and greed may not seem like doing much (even though we have some type of peace vigil every day), but at least we are showing a dedication to the cause that many others don't have. I like to think that we are a beacon of hope to unspoken pacifists driving along in their cars.

The rest of "Women Walking" was a relaxing time at our 78 year old CW friend Patty's beautiful house in Santa Clarita. We lounged around in the hammock, went swimming in the pool, ate good food and drank good beer. Not a lot done for peace, but at least we recharged our minds and spirits to do the work, however flawed it may be, that we carry on in Skid Row and downtown.

On the first night, we gathered together to talk about women who have inspired us in our lives. The memento for the weekend was a T-shirt emblazoned with the above picture, which is the cover of a movie about our most inspiring lady in the Catholic Worker Movement, Dorothy Day. The title of the film comes from a quote of hers;

“Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily.”

Freegan Flowers

First, I would like to report that the LA Catholic Worker 40th Anniversary Party was a blast! There will be pictures of the madness, I promise.

But for today, I would like to "consider the flowers". Here at the house, we have beautiful flower gardens in our yard. When I enjoy them, I am reminded that a number of the plants in the gardens were actually foraged from dumpsters by myself and Eric. There are three wonderful permanent "guests" who tend to the yard and they always appreciate bringing new things to life.

This flourishing fuchsia is one out of a box of 12 that Eric and I found in a supermarket bin a couple of months ago. Even the planter is "freegan", thanks to Alberto's clever use and painting of an old coffee can.  

We found these roses in a different dumpster about six months ago. They have bloomed twice so far.

The beautiful plant at the right was dry and suffering when we brought it home in October. It's now growing rapidly.

Last, but not least, I will display the first pictures of Eric's and my vegetable garden. These are beet sprouts, with pretty red stems! It's really exciting, watching life sprout from the dirt. If only more people could experience this natural wonder.

Meeting Up

My dumpster dry spell was finally broken on Saturday, when we held the 6th "Dumpster Ride and Freegan Meal". It was a successful event. The ride was nice, the meal delicious. Thanks to our friend Eric Micheal and his  roommates for sharing their kitchen with the group. For more pictures of the event, click here. We hosted another pair of student journalists, this time from USC. The above photo comes from the project of one of the USC girls who tagged along. More pictures from her collection can be found here.

A friend of mine who visited the LACW last summer has started a new Freegan Meetup in her hometown! I was ecstatic when she let me know, because I was the one who introduced her to dumpster diving and Freeganism while she was in LA. It's so rewarding that she took charge like that. It seems like the group is doing well. Here's a bit of advice for anyone seeking to start dumpster diving meetings: just be patient and consistent. It may be a little hard at first to get attendance, but the more you just keep meeting and passing word of mouth along, the more regular members you will attract.

Here at the house, we've been gearing toward the upcoming 40th anniversary party! It's pretty inspiring that this Los Angeles branch of an immensely positive movement is turning four decades old. many intentional communities can't last even half that. Even more inspiring is that Jeff and Catherine have both been here, keeping order, for the whole lifetime of the LACW. Wow.

I've been in Los Angeles for an entire year now and am still enjoying the experience. Sometimes I yearn for travel again and know that I cannot stay in one place forever. But I feel confident that I belong in this place for now. When it's time to move on, I will know.

That's all for now. Peace!

A Little Bit of Reality

You may wonder about my romanticized accounts of working down in Skid Row with marginalized people. Yes, they are just people, individual and beautiful each in their own way. But sometimes there are bad days: it's not all bits of wisdom and smiles. Occasionally we hear gunshots and sirens, witness a fight, get confronted by unhappy guests demanding we "serve them" a certain way or look up to see that the light fixture in our bathroom was ripped out of the ceiling. And all that was just what happened to me last week. Oh, life, how we love your little bits of reality...

Free Meal

Last night I made a meal for the house ("house" is the word we use to refer to the LA Catholic Worker Community) entirely from dumpstered food. Well, make that almost entirely. I think the only not-freegan  ingredients were the garlic and salt. The rosemary and arugula were freegan, since they were grown in a friend's garden, but were also not dumpstered. Even the butter was rescued.

I cooked up a seasoned lamb's leg from New Zealand and talapia fillets (fish) with sides of golden potatoes, steamed broccoli and rainbow chard with butter garlic sauce. There was a dumpster fruit salad for dessert.

I do wish I had taken pictures of that.

I also wish I wouldn't forget the things I was going to blog about. :P for next time, I guess.

Lesson of the Day

Today was a beautiful day down at the Hippie Kitchen, after almost a solid week of heavy rain. The sun was out this morning (as it still is) and people's spirits were much higher in response.

I really enjoy what we call "Table Wiping Duty", which is a job that we do during serving hours. It involves walking around the serving area (a large urban garden with picnic tables) with a rag or broom to give the pretext of working, but is mostly about keeping order and socializing with the guests. You really can learn a lot from the people who eat at our soup kitchen. It's a mix of people who live on the streets and residents of the "SROs" (single room occupancy hotels, used as low income housing). All are on the "bottom end" of the economic system for a slew of reasons.

Today I was a "table wiper" and I learned a lesson from a friend of ours whose name is Kin. I was just chatting away with him about things in my life and he gave me a heavy dose of optimism. "Don't think of things as a 'test'," he told me, "think of it as "enhancement". This man is always smiling, joking. Here he is, a resisdent of an SRO in the "homeless capital of the US" (Skid Row, LA), without much money, eating at a soup kitchen and teaching me about optimism! To me, that is amazing and beautiful. Material circumstances do not dictate your attitude at all.

(pictues: from the catholic worker photo page. Top, Katie wiping tables. Bottom, Marie watering the serving garden)

"Where Do You Sleep?"

I just got an email from a reader that asked where one would sleep as a freegan. I think there was a misunderstanding with my last post, in which I mentioned times that I have voluntarily been homeless. Freegansim is about living simply to reduce our impact on the world, but it's not necessarily practiced by voluntary homelessness. People accept the precepts of freeganism in different ways, and adjust their lives accordingly.

Just to clarify the statements I made earlier, I do live in a house. It is a community house, shared by 20 people, but it's still a house. I have lived in an RV with Freegan friends, and I have lived on the streets for short periods of time. (In that case, to answer the reader's question, one would sleep in the same places that less fortunate souls have slept in for many years: under bridges, in trees, on the sidewalks.) The place I live now is an intentional community focused on simplicity in solidarity with the poor, and we do not get paid, nor do we pay rent. It's a live-in volunteer situation, a place of full commitment and an attempt at living out the ideals we believe in.

More on this later, I am late for a community meeting. Ah, community life.

A freegan is someone who tries to live simply, reducing their consumption and the pressure they place on the environment, through such things as recycling, sharing resources and using one’s time to help others.

Freeganism is about climbing out of the socio-economic system and living with a new motivation. Rather than working for money, as in the current system, freegans occupy their time giving and receiving for free. -From Uk Freegans website

Hippie Kitchen Reflection (Letter to JJ)

I was writing a (paper!) letter to my 18-year-old sister, who lives in Oregon, the other day and I thought that a small part of what I was telling her would be appropriate for this blog, as it is a reflection on the work that I do at the Hippie Kitchen. Yes, amazingly enough, people do still write paper letters to one another! My sister is an anomaly of this tech generation; she won't have anything to do with computers and barely knows how to use the features on her cell phone. The only other gadget she uses is her iPod, which is a fairly user friendly piece of smart plastic. If only more people could live without constant internet access [cough, cough].

Here's what I wrote to my sister JJ in my real-life paper letter:

I'm very happy with my life. Living in community is my lifeblood. I love sharing food, space and time with other people. I think it may be a part of my innate personality (I have been reading a bit about psychology and personality typing lately). I also love my "job", which I don't get paid for. These days I have been "working" behind the counter of our small clinic, where I pass out generic medications and hygiene needs, like soap or toothpaste. Today is dentist day, so I get to hear the exciting high pitched drone of his drill.

The soup kitchen I am a full-time volunteer for is called the "hippie kitchen". At least that's what everyone calls it. Officially, it's the "Catholic Worker Hospitality Kitchen", but nobody refers to it that way. It's been around for almost 40 years and some of the some of the original founding members are still here. Catherin is 75 years old and works hard, like someone 20 years younger than that. 

We have a beautiful garden space at the kitchen, an oasis in the heart of this grimy concrete jungle. This is called "Skid Row", this part of downtown LA. The name "Skid Row" is synonymous everywhere with filth, homelessness and suffering. The Hippie Kitchen is a break from that, in a way, with its tall, lush trees and pretty picnic tables. But it's also a display of the sad conditions of this place and its oppressed people. We do what we can to share with them our resources and to relieve them, for a while, of the hardships of the sidewalk. But, beyond the meals, shopping carts and painkillers, all we have to give is our smiles and our patience.