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Meet Courtney Scott, a self-described "vibrant freelance travel journalist and on-air personality," who's blogging about her mission to make it through a week eating nothing but free food culled from supermarket samples and other sources. She's on day four now, and her most recent report finds her stuffing Whole Foods samples into plastic baggies and bringing them home so she can document her little "meal." Scott's definitely got some great self-control (or a weirdly-manifesting eating disorder); yesterday she was hanging in Chelsea Market, alternately blogging and "making frequent laps down the concourse for fresh nibbles," when a stranger offered her the rest of his Pad Thai. After much internal debate, she declined, saying, " 'You can leave the plate but it's against the rules to eat it. I'll just have to throw it out.' So leave the plate he did, with a fresh set of chopsticks and napkins. And throw it away I did; an $8 half-eaten plate of Chelsea Thai Pad Thai in the trash." Victory!
Can This Young Woman Survive on Nothing But Free Food?
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In regards to your article: http://gothamist.com/2009/11/28/lawsuit_dirty_st_vincents_equipment.php
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Joe the homeless guy who lives in front of the church on my block seems have been trying this experiment for the past fifteen years.
Perhaps Courtney Scott could save herself some time and save her parents' some worry by interviewing Joe for her blog instead of performing this silly stunt.
Correction: Unnecessary apostrophe above.
Very well said nycviabos.
Try eating from trashcans behind restaurants or not at all - and not just for a week from the comfort of your east village flat.
See how cute you can make that experience on your blog honey.
Her experiment sucks and she stinks.
C'mon, if you can take the food home, this is definitely doable. Just hit the happy hour food giveaways, the Costco/Whole Foods/Fairway samples, and you're fine. More challenging would be not to take food away in baggies.
I believe most of the happy hour food giveaways have vanished due to the health department's regulations.
Do you know of any places down below Chelsea that still have free happy hour snacks?
First they came and took away our smokes, then they took away our chips, then they took away our wings. Is there a pattern I see here?
Crocodile Lounge still has free pizza with every drink and Rudy's still has hot dogs (though that's not below Chelsea). Those aren't even happy hour specials. And I'm sure there are others.
What a waste of time. So boring, so annoying, so stupid. Obviously she can survive on free food for a week: as Rocknrope said above, just hit happy hour fiveaways and grocery store samples. If this is what this travel "journalist" writes about, then her career is doomed to failure.
What a waste of time. So boring, so annoying, so stupid. Obviously she can survive on free food for a week: as Rocknrope said above, just hit happy hour fiveaways and grocery store samples. If this is what this travel "journalist" writes about, then her career is doomed to failure.
Y'all are missing the point. She's already succeeded by getting sites like Gothamist to pay attention. Exhibit A for this method of promotion: Julie Allison. Congrats Courtney!
Also, it would be more interesting if the rule was she could not visit the same place twice.
"Can this woman survive on free food for a week?"
Answer: NO. She died of starvation.
What did we think was going to happen?
Also she's hot.
wait i didn't mean to respond to rock and rope.
Big deal.
Fact: Humans can survive on water and only water for several weeks. What is she trying to accomplish here?
forgot, attention whore.
Oh isn't this just so cute? A blogging dumpster diver! I hope some hardcore bum steals her laptop!! Happy Blogging
I'm tired of all this emptiness. Why are people reporting on this? Why do people become famous based on a stupid idea? A culture of emptiness.... I can't stand people like this girl.
Agreed, such underwhelming and tedious attention seeking.
Of course you can survive on free food for a week, you could survive on no food for a week.
David Blaine did it for a while in a box and no-one gave a shit. Why would anyone care about this?
I guess its news worthy when a perky and fashionable white girl does it as opposed to a bunch of hippy freegans who have been running dumpster driving workships and discussions on the economics of food distribution for years.
http://freegan.info/?page_id=43
And my question answered. 13 comments until "freegan".
She can come over and I'll cook her dinner.
I'm on day 4 of drinking only vodka. I want to be featured on Gothamist too! wah.
You'll be featured on Gothamist when, in the middle of your bender, you drunkenly stumble into the path of a subway and collect millions of dollars. Unfortunately the commenters will not be so kind.
i'm on day 5 of hopping on one foot whilst blogging about all the people I meet with my finger up my ass. Put me and the vodka guy on tomorrow.
Big deal. Broke college students, homeless people, and struggling working class families have been using these free food tricks forever.
A week? How about living like this for... oh I don't know... EVER?
um she can just eat anyway, nobody is going to see her
"So leave the plate he did, with a fresh set of chopsticks and napkins. And throw it away I did; an $8 half-eaten plate of Chelsea Thai Pad Thai in the trash."
Meanwhile, outside were several actual hungry people who are looking for free food not in the hope that with enough publicity it might lead to a freelance writing assignment but because they actually can't afford to buy enough food.
But yeah, throw the meal in the trash and blog about it proudly. That's the best option.
AHH!! I can't take it when people waste food! And that jerk knew she was going to toss it. could have passed it to a million people. Not like this doesn't happen all the time though.
" an $8 half-eaten plate of Chelsea Thai Pad Thai in the trash." Victory!"
Idiot!
sriously , John Del Signore?
you felt this nonsense to be worthy of publicity?
o wait, she's white...that makes it cool
assholes
This chick is the very definition of "attention whore".....also, I heard she has a top $$$ gig on the weekends going on "dates" with wealthy men.
Courtney Scott is the Les Stroud of Manhattan writers who've run out of original ideas.
I think some Gothamist writer just wants to bang her.
She can come over and I'll feed her. Can sleep over too.
I think that what is most offensive is that she is making a mockery of a situation in which many people find themseves. And they don't have the luxury of "rules" to follow that would permit them to throw away a half portion of food that someone else had generously offered.
I don't think she would last a day if she really were in that situation!
She is probably using this to get some attention out of her pre-existing eating disorder
Hi! My name is Courtney. What's yours? I am doing a study on how I can eat for free for a week. Oh your from Ohio also? Where?
I just read the bio on her blog, she lists her cellphone number and it's in Nassau County, that and the Al Merrick surfboard in her video... probably from Long Island.
Here is a funny video that some hardcore dumpster divers in Montreal made, I got the actual mini CD version from this weird cigarette machine in a bar that gives out trinkets instead of smokes when I was up there a few weeks ago. Anyhow, here's the link:
http://citizen.nfb.ca/surfing-waste-musical-documentary-about-dumpster-diving
*YAWN* It's been done before, and better: http://www.digihitch.com/review38.html
dinner whore
I bet this is jen carlson's best friend.
Yes, this is an inane, meaningless press-stunt straight with all the banal trappings.
But is all the sexist snark really necessary? You guys really undermine whatever righteous indignation you may be feeling when you arbitrarily label this girl a whore.
Lame stunt? Yes. But what is lamer are your reactions.
Do you really think attention whore is sexist? Really?
attention whores = K-Fed, most male MTV reality show cast members, Bill O'Reilly
Happy now?
Hi all, thanks for the comments.
Snickerdoodle, you're right. I was the broke college student, and grew up in a single-parent working class family so I know all about cutting corners. I hope some broke college kids in the city can use my tips to get a free lunch!
Ghothamistgal: Thanks for the link to digihitch.com. Slightly different angle than Free Eats but I enjoy reading about other penny pinchers. Have you been following Leon Legothetis? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eje5pVnGVDA
lol. Did you read any of the comments? Why are you thanking them?
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.
What a worthless news story. Obviously the author thinks she is so cute that he had to share the story.
Direct hit.
I hope she swelled up like Veruca Salt on all that 'free' garbage she ate. What a disgusting person. I bet she reeks of old ketchup.
Violet Beauregard!
I want someone to dig up the real story. There are any number of bloggers writing their narcissistic "this is what I'm doing" crap that isn't groundbreaking in any way, isn't particularly interesting to anyone else who doesn't know the writer (and isn't to most who do), and isn't particularly well written.
Sometimes through some quirk they get some major media attention, usually because some mainstream media writer completely out of touch with how much worthless crap is out out there in the world of blogs stumbles across it and thinks it's unique. But anyone who's actually active online has read it all before.
But there's been no mainstream coverage of this minor blog. But suddenly here it is on Gothamist, out of all the thousands of blogs that bring the same level of cultural significance (or lack thereof) and exhibit no more or less pedestrian writing skill.
So... why this one?
I want someone to dig up the real story. There are any number of bloggers writing their narcissistic "this is what I'm doing" crap that isn't groundbreaking in any way, isn't particularly interesting to anyone else who doesn't know the writer (and isn't to most who do), and isn't particularly well written.
Sometimes through some quirk they get some major media attention, usually because some mainstream media writer completely out of touch with how much worthless crap is out out there in the world of blogs stumbles across it and thinks it's unique. But anyone who's actually active online has read it all before.
But there's been no mainstream coverage of this minor blog. But suddenly here it is on Gothamist, out of all the thousands of blogs that bring the same level of cultural significance (or lack thereof) and exhibit no more or less pedestrian writing skill.
So... why this one?
Hey... that time it wasn't the usual just no sign of whether the post went through or not. I actually got a message saying that my submission "has failed."
Hey... that time it wasn't the usual just no sign of whether the post went through or not. I actually got a message saying that my submission "has failed."
I kinda already did this when I was in my early twenties. It's not that hard. I think a lot of other people have too. But what the hell was she thinking, not eating the pad thai??
John Del Signore - I wouldn't classify skipping the Pad Thai as a "victory" but rather an adherence to the pre-determined rules, thus preserving the validity of the experiment:
"Free Eats implies that the food is legitimately free, not bought by a friend or kind-hearted stranger.
Some misconception clear-up:
I don't have a comfortable East Village flat, or a flat at all. Crashing with a girlfriend on the west side until I can afford these astronomical rents.
I don't know Jen Carlson
I don't eat ketchup
But we still need to see your "Free Eater" certification paperwork. A lot of pretenders out there are piggybacking on the hard work of true certified Free Eaters thus diluting the potential media impact of a successful run at dining thrift. Also we are deeply concerned about the "Freegan" insurgency that threatens the self-absorbed middle class purity of this form of blog-baiting.
I don't mean to sound mean, but this whole thing, while I am sure you thought it would be a thought-provoking experiment, is just an overdone and silly idea that nobody will relate to or care about. You have to do something big, like live on the street for a year, or eat from dumpsters. This is just ... nothing. Also:
>> a self-described "vibrant freelance travel journalist and on-air personality," >>
That's just annoying. Really.