FoodCommune

Fri 6/19/2026, 1:12p. On our post 4 days ago about somebody making a lovely BLACKBERRY PEACH COBBLER in their cast iron skillet, somebody ELSE commented, with this pic,

"I made aloo gobi today with the potatoes, peas, and methi roti I got a week ago and change. Before that, I made stuffed roti with lamb, potatoes, and the peas 😂"
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Wow Nina! You can COOK! 😋

Good job there, turning rescued food into a delicious meal. Yummmm.👏

Thursday 6/18/2026 -- This week's FoodCommune Cucumber Nightmare* chugs along.

*Cucumber Nightmare -- a pallet (37 boxes!) of SLIMY SMALL CUCUMBERS were dumped at Candler by a trucker earlier this week. 🥒🥒🥒
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We stupidly received these SLIMY SMALL CUCUMBERS 2 days ago, on Tues 6/16/2026 -- Trucker and I (Pam) spent 3 hrs that afternoon, 12:20--3:20p, unloading the 37 boxes from truck to curb.🤦

In the 48 hrs that these cucumbers sat out on the curb, enduring both rain and sun, only 8 boxes were taken ... which left 29 boxes, all even grosser (slimier), of course, than they had been 2 days earlier. 🤮
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Farmer Rodrigo came today Thursday and loaded 19 of these 29 boxes.
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10 boxes are now left, pulled back from curb, for Farmer Rodrigo to get when he comes back this Saturday night. So the Cucumber Nightmare will finally end then. 😵

VOLUNTEER POST!

Thank goodness, the rain will be stopping just in time for our biggest weekly operations!! Now this is a forecast we like to see, as a completely outdoors gig... whew.

Although these troopers pictured in the photos have done this gig in the rain before, it's certainly much more pleasant while dry :)

First: we need volunteers to help us tomorrow, FRIDAY, June 19, with our weekly Friday food pick-up from JT, our fellow freegan food-rescuer!

Happy Juneteenth!! 🍓🍒🍎🍅
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We need help with both loading the produce at JT's and unloading it at Candler Road.
Please come pitch in for any amount of time that you are able. Food rescue takes time and effort, and we need more people helping each week!
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🍅 FRIDAY PART 1 of 2 🍅
💪 7:30--9:30p -- load for 2 hrs here: 1900 2nd Avenue Decatur Ga 30032. In the lower parking lot, behind Huskey's Restaurant.
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🍅 FRIDAY PART 2 OF 2 🍅
💪 9:30p--12m -- unload for 2.5 hrs here: 368 Candler Road, Atlanta, GA 30317.
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Please comment below 👇 and also text me Pam 404-822-5685.
If you're texting us during these loading/unloading hours, we may not be able to respond right away. Feel free to just head our way -- we'll be here. 🥵
At loading: ask for JT or Pam, mention you're there to help for FoodCommune.
At unloading: ask for Pam.
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If you cannot help this Friday night, then please consider helping:
1) the next day, on Saturday, June 20th, at our distribution at Candler, for any of the 14 hours 10a--12m,
and/or
2) on future Friday nights, loading and unloading produce, for any of the 4.5 hours 7:30p--12m.
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Thank you Atlanta Freegans! We could not keep doing this thing without you! 🌎👭👭👭🌎

Andrea Winkler commented on our 1:20p post yesterday:
"I would have liked to have seen some of those green leafy vegetables that were starting to go or other produce that was on the edge put in a special section (or just with signage on it which is the easiest) saying 'Take this for your compost.' ... have a compostable section or signage where gardeners who come for the regular shopping of $20 a crate can pick up bags of compostables and get them out of your hair. "
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Ah yes, the sorting/separating/designating/labeling of the 2nd-tier food items in any given week ...

Yes, this weekly task is key to any food rescue operation ... especially one like FoodCommune that handles so much fresh=perishable food! 🍅🌽🥕🍊
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We do already have a section where we put this 2nd-tier (compost) (free) stuff.

This section is the row of lower (ground-level) pallets that are located on the edge of the driveway, beside and below our pallet stacks of people-quality produce. 👍
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FYI, Our more scrappy members regularly scavenge this "Free" section on Saturdays.

Check it out -- this row of 10 ground-level pallets extending along the entire edge of our produce section -- You can get lots of great food for smoothies, etc here if you are simply open-minded and willing to do the processing!

eg, The people who took some of the 85 papayas that were available here last Saturday, 6/13 -- these smart people just cut out the 1% bad spots and voila, they ended up w lbs and lbs of perfectly good AND FREE papaya! 😁

Reminder: Food does NOT have to look pretty in order to 1) taste yummy, and 2) provide nutrition. In fact, some of the uglier fruits (eg, brown bananas, spotted pears) are the yummiest of all! 😋
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📣 Calling all people in Atlanta who care about this problem of food waste! Pls come help this Saturday 6/20 morning -- help sort the produce, and put the "bad" stuff down in the "Free" section for people to take that day for smoothies, compost, animals, etc!

Andrea Winkler commented on our 1:20p post yesterday:

"FoodCommune I recently read Brian Goldstone's book 'There is no place for us,' about what homelessness looks like right here in the Atlanta area, especially in DeKalb county and South Fulton. One of the things that he mentioned was that many of the working, housing insecure poor are in extended stay motels. Their food budgets are stretched to the limit. I wonder if there is any way to arrange a Food Commune stall near one of the extended stay motels? I'll see if I can dig out the name of the organizer he was working with, or maybe Kim Jackson will have resources. If you could work out which motels and a way of transporting food reliably, that might be a way of getting it to people who need it, for free or for extremely low cost. It would mean negotiating with the motel, and also figuring out which extended stay motel would be the best.

I also wonder if maybe something like the mobile farmers markets might work. In your case, you obviously don't want to put in the money for that sort of formal thing, but if you know anybody with a van who would be willing to spend Saturdays or Sundays going to a series of those extended stay motels, on a regular schedule so people know where they will be... That might be one way of connecting to people who really need the food but who don't necessarily have the transportation or the free time."
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Thx Andrea for participating in this community by getting food, sharing posts, commenting on posts, etc. 😁
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Getting more of the FoodCommune food TO PEOPLE is always our goal.

eg, extended stay motels -- We would love for somebody to make arrangements w some of these nearby motels and transport our food to people staying there.

Perhaps somebody reading these comments will bring some FoodCommune food this Saturday 6/20 to people living in extended stay motels? Anybody available? ... and willing to step up to this duty? 😁
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We need MORE PEOPLE doing this work in general, ... eg MORE PEOPLE simply showing up on Saturdays to do the on-site work at Candler Road that day. 💪

The more time and/or money that people can manage to pitch in to this effort in any given week, the more food that we can be rescuing and getting to best use here in Atlanta! 🌎

Tues 6/16/2026, 3:25p --
Do you garden? 🌱.. or ... Do you have backyard chickens? 🐓
AND Do you live in Metro Atlanta, GA, USA ... nearby 368 Candler Rd?
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If so, then come get some of these SLIMY SMALL CUCUMBERS for compost or animals!
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🥒 🥒🥒 37 boxes at curb. 🥒🥒🥒
🥒 368 Candler Rd, Atlanta, GA 30317 🥒
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Farmer Rodrigo will come get any remaining boxes tomorrow night, Wednesday 6/17, 8p.

But wouldn't it be great if 10 or 20 or 30 people came and got them all taken for their own local backyards before then ... then we would not have to have Farmer Rodrigo driving his truck all the way from Lawrenceville, 1 hour drive each way. 🚛
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Pls comment below 👇 if you come get any, to report how many boxes are left for others to come get. Thx for your consideration of others, and thx for reducing food waste.

Ps, bring plastic tote bins if you can, bc ~15 of the 37 boxes are falling apart.

Tues 6/16/2026, 1:20p -- What a nightmare. 1st trucker load ever , in our 2.5 years of receiving trucker loads at Candler, that the food is NOT in perfect condition. Ugh.
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Putting all boxes at curb.
368 Candler Rd, Atlanta, GA 30317.
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Pls all farmers and gardeners, pls come get these boxes of SLIMY SMALL CUCUMBERS for compost or animals. 🐓🌱

Tues 6/16/2026, 12:05p -- FREE CUCUMBERS TODAY! 368 Candler Rd, Atlanta, GA 30317. 🥒
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1 pallet ... ice-cold, in literally perfect condition ... Receiving retailer just didn't like that the boxes were squished. Lol.
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The retail world's loss is our Freegan gain! Come get as many of these CUCUMBERS as you can use or share. Trucker will arrive at Candler at 12:20p. Come help unload if you can. 💪

It took 2 trips (2 loads) for Farmer Rodrigo to remove all our leftovers this time! 😱

Here he is with load #2 of 2, late Sunday night, 6/14/2026. (load #1 of 2 was the previous night: his usual Saturday night pickup) 💪
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Too bad that more of the PEOPLE-QUALITY food that we spent last week rescuing ... just ended up going to Farmer for animals and compost, ie did not get to PEOPLE. 😓
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eg, SWEET POTATOES -- We had 58 boxes FREE , for people to come get tonite at our Sunday evening pop up ... We got only 5 boxes total gone ... Farmer Rodrigo took 40 boxes, and so we now have 13 boxes left for people to come get this Saturday. 🍠🍠🍠

Mon 6/15/2026, 12:06p. 1 of our members had commented, with this pic, on a post here this past weekend about Farmer Rodrigo taking the last of the BLACKBERRIES: "I bought a unit of blackberries yesterday and turned them into a blackberry peach cobbler in the cast iron. ❤️"
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BLACKBERRY PEACH COBBLER -- looks yummy! What a great use of rescued blackberries! ♠️👏

We love it when people turn rescued food into yumminess! Thanks JD for reducing food waste, and thanks for sharing about your success here. ☺️