ottawa foodies

The discussion around The Cake Shop made me wonder, what do restaurants and bakeries in Ottawa do with their day-olds? I know that Starbucks donates their pre-packaged goods to shelters, but as I understood the regulations, it could only be whole foods and pre-packaged goods and not food prepared on-site.

Case in point: In Toronto, we had a bunch of leftover sandwiches and cookies from an event. I called around to the nearby shelters and soup kitchens and nary a one would take them. I remember the same thing happening as a kid, helping my father with events at church.

Can someone clarify the regulations around this for me? I ask in part because I'd be curious to know how to change them - there's far too much food wasted in our society and if The Cake Shop has found a loophole, good on them. But, I'm skeptical....

I have simply delivered leftovers - sandwhiches, chilli, pizza, and baked goods to both the shepherds and the mission. They have always accepted with enthusiasm. Weather they serve them....hmmm now I am wondering!

I know that Harvest Loaf donates dayolds to the food bank.

There is a special law that waives liability for this as long as the business donating had the best intentions and was certain at the time of donation that that goods were edible.

lady who brunches Do you know if Second Harvest is still collecting perishables? Just wondering because I wish we had something like that in Ottawa...

LWB - I share your skepticism. Maybe because they are a business with a health inspected kitchen they are able to donate?

It sounds like a lot of stale cakes and cookies are going out to shelters and soup kitchens, I find that depressing. The marginalized in our society deserve fresh food too. I would hope business would donate some freshly prepared treats as opposed to old, stale treats that no one wants to buy.

WHere is this other discussion that has taken place?

I'm missing some context here ...

Zym:

Sugar Sugar (aka former Cake Lady) says that the Cake Shop sends all leftover products each week to the Shepard's of Good Hope. The Cake Shop has a lot of baked goods on the shelves & in the display, so they either have a huge weekly turnover of bakery products, or they are sending a large amount of product to the Shepard's as Sugar indicates.

I would assume a professional bake shop could send over their old bakery products, but I have nothing to base that on.

ottawafoodies.com

For the record, I have no idea if the products sit and get stale. However, I am very familiar with the neighbourhood and know how many bakeries there are in a 4 block radius: 3 Bakers & Bike, Thyme & Again, Isobel's, Suzy Q, Emerald Bakery, The Cake Shop, & Bridgehead (2 locations).

You forgot Harvest Loaf, and both The Ottawa Bagel Shop and Herb and Spice who resell bakery products from other nearby bakeries.

I respectfully resign from this site! The negativity has made me very sad and upset.
My old heart can no longer take it.
I have lived a long life and wish to live a few more without tress.
Good luck to you all and may you all live a long and healthy life.

Before you go could you answer the question on whether or not you are associated with the Cake Shop?

I could have sworn you answered that question here before but my google fu is weak ...

Zymurgist, absolutely not connected other than a customer !
Shana Tova to you all.

Yeah, just found that. Looks like some people owe you an apology :-)

ottawafoodies.com

I guess you must have changed your name since you'd been accused in the past of being associated with them.

Oh hey, and Fresh Foodie can parse his own URLs now - congrats!

I don't know why HFF is getting grief here. Unless I've missed something, obvious shill is obvious.

I guess mama is being too protective.

If I were the owner or owner's family, I would pay 100% attention to the customer reviews, especially the negative ones,because you cannot help with good news, can you?
I would investigate what really happened, and if you can reach the customer, try to resolve the issues by offering better service. I think being constructive is better than being defensive.

Back to lady who brunches's original question, I'm not sure why a shelter would not take your leftovers. How long ago was that? Seems strange to me and I would doubt any local shelter would turn that stuff down. I've made sandwiches and brought them to the shelter as recently as last year. They were happy to get it. I cannot see why they would turn down leftovers from an event.

Shame on you (some of you).

This is the same reason I have become a less than active participant in this forum. There are a few members who seem to be involved in the majority of the dust-ups here. I encourage some to look through their own recent posts and determine the percentage of those that contribute positively or negatively to the forum with respect to the forums mandate ("Connecting you to Ottawa's Best Food").

IMO Sugar Sugar, regardless of her affiliation with the Cake Shop, or lack thereof participated in many discussions outside of the Cake Shop. She was also kind enough to PM me twice over the last few years regarding questions I had involving baked goods. I see no reason not to take her on her word and find the misinformed attacks disgusting.

P.S. > I have no problem with your original question LWB...

Hungry hungry hippo - I just find it hard to believe someone who posts about feeding their family last year at home, traveled Vancouver this summer and now is living in a retirement home and volunteers at Sheppards - but still orders in pies and cakes each week from the Cake Shop. It makes one's head spin. Because this forum is such a community, it feels deceitful towards us and that lacks respect.

If she is associated to the cake shop, that is fine, I have no problem with people supporting family or friend's businesses on here. That is often how we get the inside scoop on things. Also it provides an in with the owner and can establish a nice relationship. There is no need to hide these kind of relationships.

Back to the original question. I think there is detail not mentioned by lady who brunches that is important. If food was prepared and packaged (such as sandwiches in saran wrap) I would expect that a charity would accept them. If they were set on a serving table on a platter (as is done at many events) I would expect the charity to refuse them. The same goes for cookies. Nobody should have to eat food that has been picked over, touched, or otherwise contaminated by others.

I dunno Pete-In-Ottawa, what is the difference between being at that event and taking a sandwich from that plate after 40 other people have picked over it in line in front of you, and then having the 41st person package it all up and send it to you at another location? There are lots of people who will take that stuff home and feed it to their families so it does not go to waste. I don't see anything wrong with sending it to a shelter. I'd eat it either way.

hipfunkyfun - I don't understand your line of reasoning in the least bit. Where is the deceit? Your first paragraph has a few hiccups in it grammatically or something and I'm just not grokking what you are saying there.

Lets think of it this way zymurgist: Imagine you are at a conference event, and you know that the plate of sandwiches on the table did not just come from the kitchen, but was left over from another gathering several hours previous. I don't know about you, but I'd not want to eat the previously picked over, and re-served food. I'm hardly a food cleanliness prude, but I have to agree with hipfunkyfun that people who receive food through charity should be eligible for fresh, non-recycled food like everyone else.

This is ridiculous.

Are you genuinely suggesting we just throw out food left over from conferences/weddings/dayolds? Should we also stop giving our used clothing to Sally Ann or St. Vincent's?

Donated food >>> no food.

Snoopy Loopy - I don't think anyone is saying that. It isn't that we should stop donating leftover food, but it isn't enough to send stale food. All people deserve access to fresh foods, to non-processed foods and deserve freshly made meals.

I would just hope if a business was in the position where they often had excessive leftovers each week, they would adjust their output. That doesn't mean they can't donate money/time/fresh food to replace their donations of old food.

Food doesn't instantly go from fresh to stale, of course. Sure, croissants are best if eaten fresh from the oven, but If I'm having guests staying over, I'll often buy some on the Saturday and serve them at Sunday breakfast. I'm sure if the bakery sends the leftovers to a shelter on Saturday night, they're still very good to eat on Sunday morning. Most shelters do prepare fresh meals, the donated stuff from bakeries is added to that, I don't think the volunteers have time to bake fresh crescents. Fresh scrambled eggs and day-old crescents is a breakfast I'd be happy to eat myself.

As for avoiding preparing too much food, all businesses certainly do their best , but they still need to have some variety left for the last customers. They may know that they sell 20 cakes a day, but it may not always be 10 vanilla and 10 chocolate. So if they make 12 of each, there are better chances to satisfy their customers, and if they donate the ones that are not sold, I really don't see anything wrong with that.

Isabelle - of course. But specifically looking at the Cake Shop since that is how the discussion started, it is operating on a weekly basis, not daily basis. If the cake that didn't sell on Monday, is being sent out on Sunday, that is a week old cake. Are the bags of cookies being pulled from the shelves on a weekly basis too? There are a lot of cookies on the shelves. How long do those cookies - made with same ingredients we all use at home, last? I asked the question originally because I don't know. Also, if the cookies are $15/bag on Monday, and still the same cookies, same price a week later, that seems unfair to the customer.

Most bakeries replenish their supplies daily and sell off the day-old the next day.

I spoke with the baker at 3 Bakers and a Bike about cakes and they only bake what they can sell. Their reputation is based on their product being fresh, so they encourage people to call ahead so the store is left with old products.

"If the homeless don't want 'em, the homeless don't have to eat 'em"
--Elaine Benes

edit: So the store is NOT left with old products.

Bacon - don't you mean "Let them eat cake!"

"Let them eat cake!" ... The REAL story.

en.wikipedia.org

Great to tell others at social gatherings, when it comes up.

My understanding is that the charities themselves set the criteria as to what food will be accepted. In the case of leftover food they all ask that it be refrigerated and most want sealed containers. While some will accept half trays of say sandwiches, others will not. Most charities need you to drop the food off as well. If you decide to donate some extra food, please contact the charities directly and ask them what they will accept and when the best time would be to deliver.

Funny as I remember going to East Van/Gastown as a kid on a field trip and the most noticeable experience was watching folks eat out of garbage cans.

This eve went to Main Street Pub (stitts) with neighbor and the Bebe for wings. Neighbor ends up running into a crazy friend who joins us. I eat wings about 75% and dont need to eat all the stuff at the ends of the wings. Next thing I see is the new guy eating wings too which I am thankful for since I could not eat them all. All of a sudden I realize he is not eating whole wings I had not eaten, but he was re-eating the wings I already ate but did not clean enough of the stuff of I guess.

It takes alot to floor me but to see someone re-eat my wings was over the top!

K,