<p>One of the interesting things about it is that if you <em>know</em> that people will eat your leftovers, it makes you more conscious about what you're throwing away, and more aware of the Western cultural norm of throwing away food. In San Francisco, there's a meme involving putting your uneaten food on the top of the garbage cans for homeless people to have. There's even a newly coined term for it: replating. See Replate</a>. an open-source food-activism project in which you may already be participating. .</p>
<p>OMG...so its like a counter separating the people on real meal plan and the "scroungers?" Can non-students scrounge too? Do they also have straw and rags in the dorm lobby so people without rooms can seek shelter? Don't think I'd last too long at Reed, guilt would kill me...but I've hijacked this thread. It was nice of TrinSF's son to get the chicken fingers!</p>
<p>When I took my son to a woman for some college advice, she asked me what his best quality was. I got all teary, and told her that his best quality was his kindness. He is a kind and sensitive young man, and I hope he keeps those qualities throughout his life.</p>
<p>My second son's best quality is his honesty. He tells it straight whether I want to hear it or not!! And his sense of humor - he always cracks me up!!</p>
<p>J'adoube, I suggested that lderochi set the clothes on fire because I thought maybe then the firefighter son would notice they were there.... but I'm not sure that would work for our non-firefighting kids. At least lderochi's son would know how to put the fire out. ;)</p>
<p>Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that while he would very much enjoy putting out the fire, there would STILL be a charred mass on the floor that he would never get around to picking up. I believe in the ZITS comic strip referred that mass of "stuff" on a teenager's floor as the "Permacrud", which is not a bad description.</p>
<p>WRT the chicken fingers, son won the Senior award for best exemplifying compassion last spring -- school gives out awards for students who exemplify each of the school's core values. The chicken fingers is just an expression of that -- he often thinks of others and tries to help them out. I know that scrounging sounds terrible, but I remember when I was a young newlywed and mother in a college town. The meal plan didn't cover Sunday evening, so my then-husband and I used to invite all our student friends over and cook a one-pot meal of one kind or another so they'd have something to eat on Sunday nights. It's a Southern thing, to be concerned about feeding everyone. :-)</p>