Company throws away massive amounts of food for clients, refuses to feed its own staff: 'They cut down the food budget by $700'

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Jun 1, 2026 9:00 PM EDT

Food waste can be incredibly upsetting. 

The worker in this story, who shared their tale on the antiwork subreddit, had a lot to say about it within their own workplace. If you've ever worked in food service, you know just how much can get wasted. Due to food safety regulations, sometimes you have to toss large swaths of food that seem edible. It probably is edible, you just can't be sure. This can be frustrating. Then there are big companies that care much more about the bottom line than they do about sustainability. They don't care that food is being wasted. If it saves them money, they'll do it. If you're in the unfortunate position of being the one who has to throw away all that food, then it can get under your skin. Especially if you struggle with food insecurity in the first place. 

Nobody likes a hypocrite. It's hard to look at someone who has everything and realize that they have the ability to improve your life and they're not going to do it. When you realize the people in charge have access to seemingly an infinite amount of money, and you struggle to put food on the table, then that's a huge issue. It can make you feel like nothing is going to change, and that can be pretty disturbing. We want to feel like we have control over our workplace, and that we're not at the whim of someone else's decisions. That's what happened here. 

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  • Cheezburger Image 10635401984
    via Salah Ait Mokhtar

    A person dumps out a bag of orange peels in a photo representing food waste

  • Company would rather throw out food then feed staff that can't afford to eat.

    I work in a long term care home that's a Private company in Canada and is worth Billions of dollars. They would rather lie to us and say that the food gets saved for the residents when the leftovers get thrown in the trash. Staff ask at the end of meals if there are any leftovers if we could have some because most of us can't even afford to buy food. That way instead of it getting thrown into the garbage it actually goes into a person's mouth.
    via Alwayswandergetlost
  • They cut down the food budget by $700 for the residents and they don't even give us enough chocolate chip cookies to even give every single resident a 2 bite cookie. We have 45 beds and we get a dozen cookies made.
    via Alwayswandergetlost
  • A billion dollar company would rather throw away food, make portions small, and not feed staff. I hate it here. While at the public hospital they feed staff and if there are any leftovers they make sure the staff is fed.
    via Alwayswandergetlost
  • Private companies that are more focused on shareholders and keeping the CEO'S network at 11 million CAD is more important than fed residents and fed staff. Then they wonder why no one goes into healthcare and why they can never retain staff.
    via Alwayswandergetlost

  • It can be hard to feel powerless. You want to feel like you're making a difference in your community and at your job, and when you have no control over that, it's hard to feel invested. That's exactly what this worker was feeling when facing a difficult food issue in their workplace. The way they saw it, they were being asked to do something unethical, and their company wasn't doing the right thing in a tough situation. The way the company saw it, they were just trying to maximize profit. Keep scrolling to read the full story and see what you think was going on here.

  • Commenters agreed that this was a tough but ubiquitous situation.

    toiletcleaner999 I used to work nights at a convenience store. There were alot of homeless people around. I got to know them. When I would throw out food id put it safely in bags and I would mark them so they knew. Then id take
    via toiletcleaner999
  • the garbage out and gently set the bags of food on top so they didnt have to dig, they could just grab and go. We would have set times so I could make sure they got it right away while it was all still hot. 4 am no matter
    via toiletcleaner999
  • what we would throw out pizza, hot dogs, taquiotos. Toss it out clean the machines. So I made sure people got to eat.
    via toiletcleaner999
  • Cheezburger Image 10635401728
    via Unsplash+ (Toa Heftiba)

    An image representing food waste, with vegetables in a trash can

  • Danerys Targaryen It's the same down here in the US. I worked for a grocery store chain in the bakery department and I asked why they didn't give. the food to the employees if it was going into the trash anyway? Their response was:
    via DanerysTargaryen
  • 1. If someone eats the expired food or any food that is not expired but is being thrown away anyways and gets sick, they can sue the company.
    via DanerysTargaryen
  • 2. It can encourage less honest employees to hide food within the store and after a couple days go "Oh look this is expired now, I guess I get to take it home and eat it!"
    via DanerysTargaryen
  • On the one hand, I kinda get it, but on the other hand, the amount of food we would just toss every single night made me sick.
    via DanerysTargaryen
  • LegOpen7852 My old job literally locked the dumpster so nobody could take the expired sandwiches. Liability over a turkey wrap.
    via LegOpen7852
  • shoulda-known-better Never believe the it's a liability bulls either Good Samaritan laws would protect you donating food you believed was safe even if someone got sick or happened to di
    via shoulda-known-better
  • mcflame13 It should be illegal for companies to throw away perfectly good food without either offering it to employees or the local homeless population.
    via mcflame13
  • AloneChapter Remember any business I that is for profit screws whoever they can to make more money. Care homes and all of those various type of elder care that are for profit. Care more about money.
    via AloneChapter
  • Ok_Issue6908 I'm sure there is some kind of government agency for the elderly that you could notify. It's not like you're in the USA, where we have a drooling idiot with a brain worm running health and human services programs!
    via Ok_Issue6908
  • redvoxfox Publicly shame them. Get it to news media and any watch dog you can. Get the families of residents involved. Get local citizens and politicians who will support you involved wherever they have facilities and offices.
    via redvoxfox
  • Show the waste and greed and minded stupidity of the waste that could be used to feed people instead of being trashed and wasted. Show it. Tell it. Find a reporter who wants to help you expose it.
    via redvoxfox
  • SwagSkoolBX The same things happens in NYC public schools. Instead of sending food home with some of these kids that are honestly in need. They just toss is because of liability.
    via SwagSkoolBX
  • baminblack It's so unfortunate that developed countries don't have a food problem, they have an empathy problem.
    via baminblack

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antiwork job bosses work coworkers working workplace Reddit toxic-work-environment
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