Features
Replate.org
By Matthew Joseph Fortuna
Nov 20, 2007, 12:41

Replate.org
Burritos In The Rough

Call it humanism. Call it activism. Call it feeding the hungry. Hell, call it what it is: a half-eaten turkey club wrapped up on top of a garbage can. But Josh Kamler would prefer you call it replating.

Kamler’s project, replate.org, is a grass-roots project in a grass-roots kind of city — San Francisco. And the Web site and its creators are trying to put food in people’s mouths. Replating, according to the Web site, is “placing unwanted leftovers, typically in a doggie bag, on top of the nearest trash can so they don’t go to waste.”

The movement, started in the city by the bay with an activist history, isn’t a real organization with a real face, staff or constituency (yeah, kind of like the hippies San Fran was known for, too), but they’re trying to spread the word. “It’s about starting a conversation around the amount of food we waste, and what to do with it,” said Kamler. “Because hunger and food waste have a very clear link to those who go hungry.”

And many of those who go hungry, a big population in Detroit as well as San Francisco, could benefit from this type of FDA for the under-privileged. Hey, if 100 years ago the real agency prohibited “filthy, decomposed or putrid substances” in the US, maybe replate.org could do the same for the food that is so often part of the diet of the homeless — left-overs.

So I went to the voting public to find out — the homeless. The saddening interviews started with Mitch, a Metro-area homeless man stationed off of I-94. His sign read: Homeless - Hungry - Please Help - God Bless. After leaving him a couple dollars, I explained the cause and asked how he felt about replating. “Man, lunch that easy, and not digging for it,” he trailed off in broken statements. “I could do that …  you people eat every day … I’ll take what’s left. Y’all know I’m here, don’t throw it in the bottom of the can.” When asked if it was unsafe, or degrading, I got an obvious answer from the second person I talked to. “Food’s food. If I’m hungry, I eat.”

And while there’s no doubt that the half-eaten burritos or the last slice of pizza will find growling stomachs, Kamler said that the public needs to get involved, to create conversation. “It’s a Web site that spawned a movement. This project is for anyone who cares about not wasting food,” said Kamler.

To detractors who claim that people could poison the food left out, the Web site suggests that, “Sure, it could happen. But you could also get pushed in front of the subway train. Or someone could put razorblades in your Halloween candy. The fear far outweighs the actual risk.”

And if you’re looking for something to stand behind, they even have a logo — a reworked version of the green recycling logo, but with a fork, spoon and a knife. They sell bumper stickers, too, and pictures of the previously mentioned half-eaten burrito. Kamler, who also runs a communication design studio, says he’s not an activist. “We’re just everyday people who care about making our communities better. And replate is just the beginning of a conversation that we hope will inspire greater action.”

So be an activist, be a hippie, be a half-eaten burrito supplier to the hungry. It’ll save them a lot of trouble — and a lot of trash.  | RDW

More info: replate.org

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