This Guy Exposes Painful Donut Waste
It probably won’t come as a surprise that fast-food restaurants have been doing well lately, because many people naturally find comfort in a burger and fries during uncertain times. Especially when they know they’ll get the same thing every time, at every location. But no matter how much is sold, there will always be food left over at the end of the day. This guy could no longer stand to watch what happened to it and stepped in—but it ended up costing him dearly…
Do you also feel a little crushed inside when you have to throw food away? It’s annoying enough when you have to throw away blue cheese because it starts turning red, or rice you’ve kept for too long (you should have made the perfect nasi goreng with it in time). But imagine having to throw away bags full of perfectly edible food every day—food that could make people who can’t afford it incredibly happy?! In this case: donuts!
Bye-bye, donuts
Because that’s exactly what American Bryan Johnston had to do every working day at ‘his’ Dunkin’ Donuts location. The sixteen-year-old filmed himself having to dump more than three hundred (!) donuts and sweet rolls into huge trash bags, while pouring liter after liter of hot tea and coffee down the sink as people slept outside in the cold.
Santa Claus
One day, he could no longer bring himself to do it. He neatly divided up and packaged the leftovers, wrote a kind message on the cardboard bags, and set off on a distribution tour to places including the fire department and homeless people on the street. To draw attention to the absurd food waste, he filmed these actions and posted them on TikTok—and that’s where things went wrong…
@bryanjohnston_Reply to @cole_598 Let’s make 2021 a year of supporting our community ❤️ Tag a friend in the comments to spread the positivity 🙂 #fyp #Wee♬ Mr. Blue Sky – Electric Light Orchestra
You can’t just do that
Because Bryan’s employer, the franchise owner of this Dunkin’ location, found out about it and fired him on the spot. To Bryan’s disappointment, this happened in a painful way: “She didn’t say anthing like ‘sad to see you go’ or ‘thank you for being part of the team’… It’s still very hard to look back to”. But his TikTok account of the whole ordeal was soon picked up by thousands of people, and before long Dunkin’ Donuts faced a wave of outrage while Bryan received a great deal of support. Financial support, too—and what did the kid do with it? He immediately bought donuts from the competition (KrispyKreme) so he could continue his efforts. He has stated that now and in the future, he plans to dedicate himself fully to helping shed light on the distressing issue of food waste in America and the enormous problem of world hunger for a younger generation.
And Dunkin’? The company emphasized that, as the parent company, it has developed a food donation program as an option for its franchisees (location owners). Whether franchisees choose to participate is an individual decision.
Also read:
- Fromage fort is the delicious solution for all those leftover pieces of cheese
- Recipe: Gordon Ramsay’s chocolate donuts
- Guide: the best way to reheat leftovers
Sources: Bored Panda, TikTok/Bryan Johnston
Image Dunkin’ comment: ItsTerrax3
