On Friday the Times ran a profile on Grub, the latest “freegan” dumpster-diving endeavor. This isn’t a particularly new trend — freeganism started about half a century ago — but these Grub folk are apparently way more organized than their predecessors. They meet up every couple of weekends and troll the streets of Greenpoint and Williamsburg for food that’s been thrown out and get together to prepare and eat the meal on Sunday.

“Inspired by communal meals shared by squatters in Amsterdam and Berlin,” writes the Times, ”the dinners are meant to promote camaraderie. Each menu is determined by the vagaries of the sidewalk haul and the palate of whoever shows up to cook. While the concept of eating from Dumpsters might turn the stomach, there is a rich history in New York of intrepid people transforming someone’s trash into treasure, and the Grubsters are careful about what they take.”

“Intrepid people transforming someone’s trash into treasure”? Yeah, they’re called homeless people. It’s cool that these “Grubsters,”  want to make a point about how wasteful our society can be, but as Gothamist points out, “they don’t actually need to scavenge to survive.” A more useful enterprise might be trying to start up a soup kitchen and inviting all those people living on the streets to have a nice… nicish… meal.