Monday, November 12, 2007

Dumpster Diving Panera

This past weekend my family finally took the plunge. After hearing the success stories of several locals who are professional dumpster divers, here and here, we made our first raid on the dumpsters behind Panera bread in Gainesville (we stayed away from Chantilly lest we run into our competition and start a fierce turf war!).

With my son sitting in the car chattering about being "sneaky," my wife on the look-out, I managed to snag several large bags of bread, bagels, and rolls! We brought our loot home, where we sorted it out and packaged it for freezing. It was an impressive haul! I have heard it said "once a dumpster diver, always a dumpster diver," I am afraid that may be the case for us! The one point of frustration encountered was the fact that I started a low carb diet last week, so I cannot partake of any of the goods for a couple weeks, and only in limited quantities after that... I guess it is time to dumpster dive behind the local steak house!

Here is a pic of our haul.



And here are my dumpster diving companions standing proudly in front of the haul.



Previous post on dumpster diving.

9 comments:

Tara said...

I'm soooo impressed!! What a great idea!

Sara K. said...

Wow! I can't believe that haul you made! This is my first read of this blog, after Shawn passed it on to me. I am intrigued with the thought of dumpster diving...S

Anonymous said...

I work at a panera, closing, i kid you not you can make a haul like that EVERY DAY unless someone comes in to take it for charity (churches, etc)

its quite upsetting to know how much food we throw away

Anonymous said...

As a panera worker, I'm really relieved to know that people are taking our bread so I don't feel guilty when throwing it out. I hope more people do what you guys are doing because wasting food is just illogical!

Anonymous said...

my friend and i just started dumpster diving the local panera. We are college kids, and we feed about 50 some of us for a few weeks off of one dive. Quite convenient. Panera knows whatsup (except they don't because of how much they waste)

Anonymous said...

My roommate and I have just started DD'ing the local Trader Joe's, and plan to hit the Panera tonight.

The golden rules: only take what you need, and leave the area clean.

If possible, remember to close the dumpster, so as not to attract rats.

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Unknown said...

Wow. Katty really hit target with that ad. Anyways, you've inspired and motivated me. I might hit up Dunkin Donuts tonight at closing as well as Panera and Starbucks. Fingers crossed they aren't locked.

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