‘Freegans’ score free meals
A freegan is an individual who prescribes to a strict dietary code of only consuming free food.
This use of the word was coined by Katie Swain and McKenna Drew, who challenged themselves to eat only free food during the last two weeks of spring semester of 2012. This year, Swain created a Twitter account to spread the freegan spirit around USU campus.
“We got an idea in our head that there is so much free food on campus and if we were to keep up on it, it would be so easy to only eat free food,” said Swain, a junior double majoring in print journalism and art. “I don’t think people realize how much free food is on campus. All we have to do is keep our ears open and eyes open.”
Swain and Drew became strict freegans. They didn’t buy any food the last two weeks of the semester. Swain said they would keep each other informed via text messages about the free food opportunities on and around campus.
“We bummed food off of people on campus,” Swain said. “We would be on campus and text each other that there is free donuts at the education building.”
Because of their success as freegans during the end of the semester, Swain now tweets about any opportunity for free food she hears from people, newspapers or flyers.
“I’ll see something and just tweet about it immediately,” Swain said. “Anything with free food I will tweet it. This could be the next big thing.”
As of Oct. 8, @freegancrashers has 26 followers on Twitter. Swain said she is confident the freegans will grow as college students are poor and always on the lookout for opportunities for free food.
“College kids are looking for ways to cut corners,” she said. “They like quirky things and this is quirky. It’s the kind of thing that people think, ‘Oh that would be a cool thing to do,’ but they haven’t started. A lot of people I think have been waiting for something like this.”
“It is the best idea ever,” said Kai’a Pfeiffer, a sophomore dual majoring in marketing and graphic design. “Katie is like a modern Gandhi because she brings free food to everyone through the simple app of Twitter.”
Pfeiffer said he specifically got a Twitter account to follow the freegans. He thinks it’s perfect for students.
“College students are poor and like free food – they like free anything,” he said. “It’s going to take all the campuses by storm. There are going to be freegan crashers on every campus.”
Interest is already circulating around campus.
“It’s a really good idea,” said Briana Thomas, a sophomore majoring in biology. “I always try and look and see on newspapers and posters on campus but it’s great that it’s all in one place now.”
“I don’t work and just go to school full time, so it’s awesome,” said Jon Thomas, a sophomore dual majoring in physics and math. “If there’s free food, we will be there. We are always hitting up the Quad if there is free food. We are all hungry and poor.”
The freegans are Swain’s new obsession, she said. She is constantly telling people about the Twitter account and looking for free food opportunities.
“It doesn’t take much,” she said. “You just need to look around, look at signs and listen to what people are saying. They are announcing free food all the time. We decided that our motto is ‘It’s not that they don’t care, it’s that they don’t know.'”
Swain said she understands if freegans get too big, it could possibly cause a problem.
“I’ve been tweeting more about bigger events where a lot people are involved,” she said. “I think people would noticed if 30 random people showed up at some engineering thing that they weren’t involved in. I tweet about things that the groups want more people to be involved
in.”
The word freegan is a play off the world vegan, Swain said. Where vegans have a strict diet of no meat or animal byproduct, freegans have a strict diet of free food.
“We’re not foodies, we’re freegans – it’s a way of life,” she said.
– dani.hayes@aggiemail.usu.edu