Panera (at least the one in St. Louis Park) gives its excess bread to non-profits at the end of each night (at least each night a non-profit can pick it up). With my new position helping with Community Meals, tonight I went to pick up the bread to give away at tomorrow's meal. Although I have known that there is always a huge amount of bread donated, picking it up puts it in a different perspective.
I met another person at Panera since I hadn't previously picked up the bread. We started with the bagels, moved to the loaves, continued with deserts, then added the extra sliced bread from the line. As we were putting the bread and pastries into the car, I asked how much bread my helper thought we had taken. Our total seemed to be twenty loaves of bread, one grocery bag of boxed pastries, and five dozen bagels. The amount of extra bread seemed excessive to me. Why don't they make less bread? Why do they continuously have all of the bread at the end of the day?
As I talked with the other volunteer, we had some opinions. I was talking about how I didn't understand why they didn't make less. She said maybe it's brought to the store instead of baked on location. It's baked on location (We asked later.). Next the idea of a tax write off surfaced. Although it was not my original idea, it makes sense. They probably are able to write off all they give away to non-profit organizations. It's generous to give all of this bread away, but I still find it to be a waste of resources.
I met another person at Panera since I hadn't previously picked up the bread. We started with the bagels, moved to the loaves, continued with deserts, then added the extra sliced bread from the line. As we were putting the bread and pastries into the car, I asked how much bread my helper thought we had taken. Our total seemed to be twenty loaves of bread, one grocery bag of boxed pastries, and five dozen bagels. The amount of extra bread seemed excessive to me. Why don't they make less bread? Why do they continuously have all of the bread at the end of the day?
As I talked with the other volunteer, we had some opinions. I was talking about how I didn't understand why they didn't make less. She said maybe it's brought to the store instead of baked on location. It's baked on location (We asked later.). Next the idea of a tax write off surfaced. Although it was not my original idea, it makes sense. They probably are able to write off all they give away to non-profit organizations. It's generous to give all of this bread away, but I still find it to be a waste of resources.
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