Working in a bakery in a large grocery store I see a lot of perfectly good food thrown out because it is almost past its shelf life. We bake everything from scratch there at the store without any preservatives so everything goes out pretty quickly. We throw out three or more buggies of bread, cakes, pies, cookies, scones, tortillas, muffins, and rolls every night. The other departments in the store throw out just as much.
Of course with this much shrink, there's lots of food that can be eaten for free by employees just before it's thrown away. It's like dumpster-diving before the food goes in the dumpster. One could cease to buy groceries and just munch on the job and eat extremely well, depending on where you work and how much food they throw out. Because the food has such a short shelf-life, most food banks either can't take it because of health codes or don't want it because it spoils so quickly.
Any food-oriented job such as bakeries, restaurants, or grocery stores that make their own fresh food provide many opportunities to obtain free food that's about to be thrown out. So if you're looking for a job and could use some free food on the side, look into food sales or production.
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