First, the tagline for the premise of Free Lunch.

Add one freegan individualist to a corporate tax attorney. Compound with a midnight meeting inside a dumpster, and let the interest accrue.

Now a basic definition:

freegan [n]
a person who consumes food that has been thrown away, especially someone who wants to protect the environment by reducing waste

A little more detail, taken from here:

In most developed countries, hygiene and safety standards are so high that many foods remain safely edible long after their ‘use by’ or ‘best before’ dates. This fact, and the concerns of many people about unnecessary waste and the consequent negative effect on the environment, led to the advent of freeganism in 2003. Freeganism is the philosophy of minimising impact on the environment by consuming food that has, quite literally, been thrown away. For the freegan - the name given to those who practise this philosophy - the fact that disposed-of goods have already left the production-consumption cycle absolves them of any feeling of responsibility for resources used in the production process. Freegans therefore collect and consume surplus food from supermarket bins and bakery doorways, food that would otherwise have been taken to a landfill site.

Freeganism is usually associated with a political philosophy rather than dietary behaviour, intending to make a strong anti-consumerist statement. It is therefore sometimes associated with the concept of ethical eating, i.e. making considered choices about the food we consume based on ethical principles. However, at the radical end of freeganism are some rather extreme practices, such as what is referred to as plate scraping or table diving, where freegans linger in restaurants to consume discarded food from plates and tables used by other diners. Freegans who engage in this practice are also alternatively described as plate scrapers or table divers.

However, it's not just eating. It encompasses an entire anti-consumer lifestyle. The goal is never to buy anything, and the website provides an astonishing amount of information as to how one can accomplish that. I was impressed, despite myself, particularly by an organization called Food Not Bombs. Apparently they dive for wasted food and then serve up really impressive meals in public parks to anyone who wants to partake, usually this includes the homeless. I have to hiss at Las Vegas, Orlando, Santa Monica, Birmingham, and Fredericton. These towns have outlawed the feeding of the indigent in public parks. People are being arrested for helping others now? What the hell?! According their site, they've been accused of terrorism for feeding the hungry and members in San Francisco have been arrested over a thousand times for doing exactly that. I had no idea.

I hope I can raise some social awareness as well entertain with this project. This book is going to be fun as hell to write. Darby, our heroine, has ginger hair and freckles, she lives in a squat, and she's happy about it. She's going to knock our rather self-satisfied hero, Chaz Montgomery Winthrop, right on his ass. Figuratively and literally. If he wants her, he'll have to give up everything for her, and it's going to be hilarious breaking Mr. High and Mighty Materialist down to that point.

When it comes time to research, I'll get in touch with the Freegan organization and see if anyone will host me. If possible, I'll go dumpster-diving and attend a Freemeet, essentially a barter-based flea market. I know, I know, it's going to be glamorous.