My local food bank can only provide 8 packages with referrals every time before you run out, and I have, but my situation hasn’t improved financially due to various set backs and I’m struggling to feed myself. I’ve heard that supermarkets throw out massive amounts, but have never been in a position where dumpster diving seemed feasible. People who do it, what time of day do you do it and how do you find good spots? UK resident for ref
A lot of restaurants end up throwing out food that would otherwise be perfectly edible.
If you’re a polite and patient individual, you might be able to build up some rapport with the owner or the workers. When my friend was in college, he could barely afford to feed himself most of the time. He was friendly with the cashier at a local fast food place and asked if they could set aside any orders that get sent back (due to being wrong) and give them to him instead of tossing them in the garbage. Not everybody will do this for you, but it’s worth asking. I think generally store employees and managers are sympathetic enough to not care about what happens to product that was destined for the garbage anyway so they typically agree.
I’m sure there are some managers that would do this but in my experience that would be the exception rather than the norm. From what I’ve seen, managers tend to be bootlickers who support the status quo and believe in pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, and think handouts make people weak and dependant (newsflash: barely any human is truly self sufficient).
Workers usually don’t give a single shit, though. Unless you get super unlucky and get one of those “by the rules” type.
There’s definitely some variance out there. Some managers care about their employees and have a conscience, which would make them more likely to sympathize with a hungry dude who can’t pay. Others are the typical Scrooge McDuck caricature and go out of their way to be cruel to others.
I think generally in my experience chain restaurant managers tend to get promoted from within the company and start at the lowest position, so they have more perspective on what it’s like to be at the bottom rung of society and have a bit more empathy for those who have unfortunately sunk even lower than that. Private business managers on the other hand, it depends. Some are guided by their own morality, while others have a chip on their shoulder about how they made it without help and so can everyone else (which is total nonsense, in order for there to be winners in capitalism, there must also necessarily be losers, so not everybody is going to make a success of themselves in that way no matter how much effort they expend).