UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, July 16, 1997
5
Local eateries leave leftovers for needy
By Lauren Dials
Kansan staff writer
Bakeries in Lawrence throw away thousands of dollars in food every day, but some people are thankful for the waste.
Bagel and Bagel is one of the businesses in Lawrence that throw away leftovers. Waste at each store ranges from 100 to 300 bagels a day.
Bakeries and other businesses that make their product daily do not keep the products for more than one day.
Matt Edwards, Kansas City, Mo., senior has worked at Bagel and Bagel for more than a year, and he has seen a lot of waste.
"When we first opened, a shelter came to pick up the bagels every night," Edwards said. "When they stopped, we had no choice but to throw them away. Now we put them in the dumpster every night."
But some still take advantage of the bagels that Bagel and Bagel throws away.
"A lot of people wait outside after we close, and they take the bagels before we dump them," Edwards said. "I've also seen homeless people climb in the dumpsets and take the bags out. There's nothing wrong with the bagels, some of them are even fresh."
Dave Webster, general manager of Bagel and Bagel, said that sometimes the bagel-waste percentage is as high as 25 percent.
He said that waste is inevitable when dealing with a bakery or noshery.
"Bagels are hard anyway," said Billy Davis, assistant manager at Bagel and Bagel. "If we served them the day after they were baked, they'd be hard as a rock."
"We can't use our bagels for more than one day because they wouldn't be fresh," Webster said. "Some of them we send back to the commissary, and they make bagel chips out of them. But even after that, there are still a lot left."
The daily waste from Bagel and Bagel fills up to two garbage cans every day.
Webster said some of his employees put the bagels in clean garbage bags and leave
Matt Edwards Kansas City, Mo. senior and Bagel and Bagel employee
them outside the dumpsters so that they will be taken and won't go to waste.
Other Lawrence businesses, like Wheatfields Bakery and Blimpie Subs and Salads, donate regularly to local shelters and organizations.
Melissa Charles, Wheatfields employee, said the store donates its daily waste, such as cookies, pastries, and breads, to shelters every day.
"We feel strongly about donating," Charles said. "We have a total of five organizations that we give to, and we give to two of them on a daily basis. Why throw it away if someone can use it?"
Women's Transitional Care Services, a shelter for battered women and their children, is one of the organizations that receives Wheatfields leftovers. Angie Reinking, a supporter of the shelter, said that donations are extremely helpful.
"We could really use donations," Reinking said. "We house up to 20 people a day. Some restaurants do call us, but it's hard for them because they can't deliver the food. It's a private location."
Bagel and Bagel is looking for a place to donate their bagels.
"They'd be a lot more useful at a shelter than they will in a dumpster," Webster said.
Learned Club serves past and present KU students
By Daniel Ethan Thompson
Kansan staff writer
Just beyond the north traffic booth on Jayhawk Boulevard sits a colonial brick building. On the loading dock, there are often slick-haired servers and chefs with big, white hats who smoke and sculpt ice that will be taken inside to a restaurant few students have been to.
Never eaten there? Neither have a lot of Lawrence residents. "We're here for the people," said Bryan Greve, manager of the Learned Club in the Adams Alumni Center, 1266 Oread Ave. "But we don't want walk-ins off the street. That's not our purpose. We have a niche."
The Learned Club, which is one of the University of Kansas Alumni Association's organizations, supports the association's mission through hospitality, Greve said. The restaurant on the second floor sits beyond the top of a large, curved staircase. The wood paneling and rich, red carpet is spread throughout the small dining rooms where white-haired customers outnumber the college-aged wait staff.
In the past, in order to eat at the club, a patron had to pay the Alumni Association's dues and a supplemental fee.
Now, anyone who is a member of the Alumni Association may eat at and use the center and its services.
Greve said that the new payment plan is more of a value for faculty and staff.
For the first three years after a student graduates, the fee is $25 annually and the first six months are free. Then the annual fee is $40.
Alumni Association members don't have to have graduated -- anyone who has attended or is attending the University can
join. In fact, friends of the University can join, which is a very broad definition.
Sheila Immel, senior vice president of the Alumni Center, said that for $15 a year, a student could join the Student Alumni Association and receive the same benefits.
"We had 70 to 80 members this year, but we want to expand that to 150." she said.
Greve said many faculty and staff members paid the dues so that they could come down during the lunch hour and have the buffet.
He also said they are collecting menus from other restaurants to look at themes and gather ideas.
Other upscale restaurants in town don't worry about the competition from the Learned Club.
"They're more or less eclectic, and we are an Italian restaurant," said Albert Pereira, supervisor at Paisano's Ristorante, 2112 W. 25th St.
"The alumni will go there, but that's tradition. We worry more about direct competition," he said. On graduation weekend, his restaurant's tables were full most of the night.
James Truscello, co-owner of Pachamama's, 2161 Quail Creek Drive, said that business at his establishment was good during graduation but that the Learned Club had set itself apart.
Greve knows that his club fulfills a specific purpose.
"I know there's competition for people's time everywhere," he said. "But because our business is driven by the University, that's where we focus our efforts. We have this building that's the Alumni Center. We want to bring life, a feeling of belonging. It's our hope and intention to make the center more open and inviting."
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