How much wasted food could be saved?

For anyone who has ever wondered what we do with our leftover breads and pastries, Panera actually has a strong priority to donate them to charities.

If you know anyone who is willing to pick up the donations, your local Panera Bread will be happy to bag up the extras and send them along for good use.

My own mother picks up all of the bread and bagels at the end of the night and takes them to a soup kitchen in West Baltimore. I actually went down to that soup kitchen once and the people who come in could not be more grateful for the donations.


The topic of wasted food though is an interesting discussion point. JB of the WASTED FOOD blog wondered exactly what we do with our leftovers. The real question though, is how can we reduce the amount of extra food that is made throughout the day.

It is more common than not that we will have to remake or change a completed order during our shifts. This means that the food we already prepared will get thrown away because the Health Department states that we cannot change food and hand it back over the counter.

My friend from work passed along this story about a remade salad:

Apparently, one of our trainers was teaching her trainee how to make the Greek salad a woman had just ordered. The woman came down and watched the trainer, who was standing by the salad station to makes sure it was being made properly. When the salad was practically completed, the woman decided that because the trainer was talking AROUND the station, she had spat in the salad.

In reality, the notion was ridiculous, as most people do not spit across a station when they talk.

The employees, however, were forced to remake the salad because the woman refused to believe this trainer had not spat in it.


This is the perfect example of wasted food. We had to throw away the contents of the first salad because it had received a complaint. We had no choice.

I am begging you as a customer to double-check your receipt after your order is completed or to ask the cashier to repeat your order.

This will reduce you having to bring something back, us having to throw it away and waste food, retrospectively causing food costs to go up because we have wasted to so much food because of stupid mistakes.

Panera is expensive enough people, let's not make it worse.

If you notice a problem, bring it up early. PLEASE don't just stand there and watch, THEN complain. That sounds pretty absurd... doesn't it??

You wouldn't curse in front of your family, so don't do it to me.

I think my most unforgettable Panera experience happened 2 years ago on a busy summer day. I was mainly a cashier at that time, so my job was direct interaction with customers at all times (this is why after 1 1/2 years I eventually got moved to crispanis and salads.)

An older man, probably about 60, came up and ordered two sandwiches like this:

"I'll take 2 chicken salad sandwiches. I'll have the first one on (pause) multi grain bread.

Me: With everything sir?

Him: Yes, with everything, and ya know, you can just put the second sandwich on wheat."

Keep in mind Panera still has two wheat breads: Whole grain(formally the multi grain) and honey wheat.

Maybe it was stupid to assume that after ordering one sandwich on multi grain and the second on "wheat" that he was referring to the same bread.

I was HORRIBLY wrong.

After reading his receipt two minutes later, he comes running back to me, interrupts the customer I was with and asks "WHAT THE HELL?? I said I wanted my second sandwich on wheat!"

I was still confused, so I told him both were on wheat. He looks at as though he is going to literally slap me and says "What could possibly make you think that I wanted two sandwiches on th same bread??"

Dumbstruck. I go get my manager and as I walked away to tell the sandwich maker the adjustments, the man looks at my male manager and say "It is just like B****es to screw it up. My wife is just like that."

My manager was pretty disturbed and just gave the man his sandwiches, said "she is one of our best employees" and asked him to leave.

Since that day I have never assumed Whole grain and honey wheat were the same thing.

But seriously, was the cussing necessary? No. We will ask you to leave.