Bagels find a new home after Panera

One by one, the bagel trays empty. First go the cinnamon crunch, then the plain, then the… One by one, the bagel trays empty. First go the cinnamon crunch, then the plain, then the everything, topped with sesame and poppy seeds, garlic, toasted onion and kosher salt.

Only the Dutch apple remains in its tray at Oakland’s Panera Bread, and some nights a sourdough loaf keeps it company during closing hours.

The Dutch apple bagel is placed on wax paper beside all of the other leftover pastries, where it waits until Cory Linfield, Pitt freshman and certified bagel rescuer, arrives.

Linfield is part of a team who picks up the bags of leftover items and delivers them to various Pittsburgh locations – homeless shelters, meals-on-wheels outposts or support centers for the mentally handicapped.

Linfield learned during a Campus Crusade for Christ Bible study in January that Panera partnered with groups to transfer the food. He’s been doing it ever since.

Other individuals take the food to various destinations every night from the Panera on Forbes Avenue. Linfield takes the Wednesday night shift.

According to Panera’s website, the company has donated more than $12 million worth of bread products in the past few years through the program Linfield works with, Day-End-Dough-Nation.

Other Pittsburgh-based organizations contribute to the food rescue business. The largest area organization is the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.

The food bank’s Three Rivers Table Program receives food from more than 130 Pittsburgh restaurants, grocery stores, caterers and bakeries such as Starbucks, Giant Eagle, Red Lobster, Olive Garden and Long John Silver’s.

The program has been around since 1998 and was established to collect excess food, which is food that was prepared but not served.

“It’s food they didn’t sell, so rather than them throw that out, we get them to donate it,” said Kathy Hruska, manager of the Table program.

Last year, the program delivered 425,000 pounds of prepared, perishable food. They average about 40,000 pounds a month and provide food for 120,000 people.

Hruska said the trucks collect the donations every morning, Monday through Friday, and deliver them in refrigerated trucks.

“The drivers know their agencies well enough that they don’t take crab legs to an after-school program,” Hruska said.

She also said that while the amount of food donated remains steady, the cost of the program to the food bank rises every year, partly because of the cost of fuel.

Also, as restaurants’ costs increase, the amount of food decreases.

Hruska still considers her program to be a success, but she says there’s also work to be done in attracting more donors.

“There are still places in Pittsburgh that are throwing food away,” she said. “We could feed all of our hungry.”

One thing that helps the program is volunteers. Pitt’s Jumpstart program works with the food bank’s repackaging program as well as the Produce to People program Saturday morning.

Third-year student Bethany Eroh went with a Jumpstart group one Saturday morning last fall to help with the Produce to People program, where volunteers go to local distribution centers and help distribute food, set up and clean up.

“It was freezing cold out and people were lined up around the block to get a couple meals worth of food,” she said. “We served 500 families in two hours, which was huge, and after that I wanted to get more involved with working for the food bank. I like their mission, and I like what they do.”

Now, she volunteers with the repackaging program three or four hours a week. All of the food donated has to be sorted and repackaged before being sent.

Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship, a transitional home for homeless veterans in Shadyside, benefits from Panera’s program .

The assistant rector at Shepherd’s Heart, pastor Jim Morehead, said the home receives donated goods from several area establishments, but Panera has always been a main provider.

Sunday through Friday morning, the shelter offers breakfast for the vets, and the Panera goodies are a favorite addition.

Morehead said even with the generosity of local businesses, there aren’t always enough pastries to go around.

“We can’t predict how many people will want things, and we can’t predict how much we will receive because, of course, it’s a donation,” he said.

At least one Dutch apple bagel finds comfort in its new home. Instead of sitting sadly behind the glass divider at Panera, it lies on a table across town. True, it’s about to be eaten, but it is no longer abandoned – it is appreciated.