Diving for Dinner

Brian Kruglak, meanwhile, sees discarded food as a good source of nutrition for the homeless. Three years ago, he and a few friends founded a D.C. chapter of Food Not Bombs, which cooks meals out of food from dumpsters to serve to hungry or homeless people at Dupont Circle every Sunday. The group serves only vegetarian meals both because members object to eating animals and because it can be difficult to tell when meat has gone bad. Food Not Bombs informs clients that the food has been reclaimed, and anyone who doesn't mind is welcome to eat.

Kruglak, a 23-year-old security guard at the Black Cat nightclub, said he does not eat out of the dumpster because he believes privileged people should not take free food from people who need it.

"Our motto is that if we'll eat it ourselves, we'll serve it to others," Kruglak said after pulling his head out of the side door of a dumpster in suburban Maryland.

The outing to Kruglak's favorite location didn't yield any loot, but he wasn't fazed; Food Not Bombs already had enough supplies for that Sunday's lunch. Besides, one store's employees leave bags of unusable food outside the store for Food Not Bombs members to rifle through before it hits the trash.

But Kruglak said finding places to dumpster dive has become more difficult. A planned trip to Whole Foods in Tenleytown was called off when the store replaced dumpsters with trash compactors.

John Hoffman, an author who coined the term "dumpster diving" in a 1993 how-to guide, said stores are taking steps to discourage divers.

"Compactors are Satan's little helper," he said. "Unless [store employees] are evil, why do they care that you're taking trash off their hands?"

Grocery spokesmen shrugged off the accusations.

"There's a popular misperception that stores are throwing away a lot of food," Kenney said. "If we feel it's fit to be eaten, we sell it or donate it."