Carrots Make You Kind
(updated July 2026)
At the supermarket I usually go to, they introduced one-euro crates to fight food waste.
Inside, there might be a mix of fruit and vegetables. Or a single product, but in a frankly unreasonable quantity.
The euro is mostly symbolic. Considering what is inside, it is almost free.
The first time I noticed the system, two women were waiting outside the store as if a divine apparition was expected somewhere between the frozen food aisle and the self-checkouts.
When the crates arrived, they fought over the best one until it became physical.
A few days later, I went back to the supermarket.
This time, no pitched battle. A few crates were still available after I had gone through the checkout.
I might have a chance, but I had to move quickly. The crates are placed after the tills, so you can calmly pay for your shopping and then watch someone faster walk away with the treasure.
Inside the crate I managed to get: twelve kilos of carrots.
Twelve kilos.
I do not know if you can picture it. It almost fills the entire fridge of a family of four. For someone living alone, it is probably two weeks of orange meals.
All of it for one euro, which works out at less than ten cents per kilo.
Obviously, there was a reason.
Some of the carrots were starting to blacken. They were a little bruised, but still perfectly edible. And not only for rabbits.
I simply had to act quickly: peel them, chop them, cook them, freeze them.
I managed to save around six kilos.
The rest started circulating.
I gave some to my flatmates, then to my friends. I posted an ad on a donation website. I also brought some to people who needed them more than I did.
I had not planned on becoming the neighbourhood’s official carrot distributor.
But receiving so much almost mechanically pushed me to give some of it away.
I do not know whether good attracts good.
But when you end up with twelve kilos of carrots in your fridge, keeping everything for yourself becomes genuinely difficult.
And I am now almost certain that carrots make you kind.