8 Restaurants That Donate Leftover Food At The End Of The Day

Whether at home or from a restaurant, food waste is a total bummer. Fortunately, though, professional kitchens of all kinds can partner with companies to donate their leftover food at the end of the day. That is, of course, if they want to, and the state laws allow it (due to food and safety concerns, it can be tricky in some areas). Regardless, knowing which national chain restaurants have the humanitarian draw to donate their leftovers and effectively minimize food waste can help you use your purchasing power for good.

Some restaurants don't have the greatest reputation for food waste, like Raising Cane's, which allegedly tosses an excessive amount in the trash daily. However, other chain spots, such as Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Panera Bread, and more, are known for minimizing the unnecessary squandering of their ingredients. One of the ways they pull it off is to donate unused goods. So, if you're ready to start giving back to the community and use your mealtime money to fund companies with more humanitarian-centric goals, the upcoming establishments are ready not only to help but also to feed you and eventually your community along the way. After all, you can only minimize food waste so much in your own home — restaurants are the real places where excessive amounts of usable ingredients go into the garbage.

Kicking off our list of restaurants that donate food at the end of each day is none other than Starbucks, and you know what? The company has managed to pull off something quite extraordinary. Starting in 2016, Starbucks partnered with Feeding America to launch a new company program, FoodShare, to facilitate the donation of leftover food from its many locations. Here's how it works: At the end of each day, third-party refrigerated trucks pick up unwanted, donatable food from various Starbucks locations and bring it to a distribution center. Then, the food is sorted and brought to food banks and meal programs in the surrounding community. Cool, huh? As a result, the Starbucks website boasts that 121 million meals have been donated and 144 million pounds of food waste have been diverted from landfills.

Starbucks' daily donation program is not mandatory, and this can be frustrating for some fans. However, despite some licensed locations potentially not participating, the brand's website proudly boasts that 100% of the company-owned locations are. Sounds like a win to me!

In an effort to support positive environmental goals and stewardship across the brand, Dunkin' created two donation programs to help lessen food waste. The End of Day Program enables Dunkin' stores to donate bakery items, other shelf-stable surplus foods, and catering orders that never get picked up to local hunger-relief organizations and community service nonprofits. The program is voluntary, but Dunkin' highly encourages locations to participate.

As if that weren't enough, Dunkin' also provides the resources needed for stores to compost organic waste, and yes, this includes the abundance of coffee grounds produced by the national chain. Once the compost has been processed, it goes to local schools for gardening, other give-back programs, and some of it is even sold to garden centers and landscapers in Southern Maine. One shining example of Dunkin's compost program in action can be found in Portland, Maine. Franchisee Kim Wolak, owner of 10 locations, has been participating for eight years. Thanks to her dedication, about 3.7 million pounds of food waste have been diverted from landfills thus far.

Panera Bread is another company that takes some serious strides in the right direction when it comes to minimizing food waste by donating surplus food at the end of the day. The company's program, called the Day-End Dough-Nation program, enables locations to hand off leftover bread, bagels, and other baked goods to a diverse group of nonprofit organizations. Depending on the location, the charities and organizations that receive the food vary, but the company works with thousands nationwide.Some of the many places surplus baked goods from Panera Bread wind up include shelters, food banks, mental health centers, after-school programs, and senior housing. Best of all, Panera Bread's Day-End Dough-Nation Program has been in effect since 2017, so the groundwork to facilitate donations has been in place for close to a decade.

Pizza Hut has been donating surplus food to people in need since the early 90s via its Harvest initiative. In fact, the brand's website boasts that it was actually "the first company to create a national surplus food donation program." Wow! Talk about trendsetters. 

So, how does Pizza Hut's program work? Well, the Harvest initiative partners with the Food Donation Connection (founded by a former executive at Pizza Hut) to realize its minimal food-waste goals. Through the partnership, it can donate leftover buffet items, pizzas that don't get picked up, and those made by mistake. Local charities in the area make weekly pickups and distribute food to families in need. Over the many years Pizza Hut has run its Harvest program with Food Donation Connection, it has donated in excess of 94 million pounds of food. The motto is "Harvest feeds people, not landfills," and we couldn't agree more.

If you have ever wondered what happens to leftover Chipotle food, you're in luck: fortunately, Chipotle is another company that goes out of its way to donate surplus food. It may not be able to help you with the leftovers you'll have from one of its massive portions, but something tells me you can handle that all by yourself, even if it takes a bit of time.

Chipotle uses the Harvest Program to divert unnecessary food waste by partnering with local charities to donate leftover food from both its restaurant locations and distribution centers. As a result, it has not only prevented 418,000 pounds of edible food from reaching landfills but also helped support the communities it resides in. The brand also prioritizes donations, with about one-third of its locations enrolled in commercial composting and recycling programs. Its goal is to reduce unnecessary waste across the board and, in many cases, turn it into something fantastic.

Just like Pizza Hut, KFC utilizes the Harvest Program to work with Food Donation Connection to get surplus food to people in need. Through these two entities, edible food is distributed to local hunger relief organizations in the surrounding areas, effectively minimizing food waste and doing good along the way. Actualizing these goals starts in the KFC locations themselves. Food intended for donation is prepared by staff members in approved containers. Then, it is stored in the freezer until it gets picked up and eventually distributed through Food Donation Connection. 

All that being said, KFC locations in the United States must choose to participate in food donation initiatives. So, it's hard to say if the one down the street from you is doing so or not. Still, according to the company website, "Since 1999, KFC restaurants have donated more than 92 million meals to over 4,300 nonprofits nationwide." Nice! Additionally, any franchise location that wants to take advantage of the program is encouraged to do so. 

Just like every other restaurant, minimizing food waste at Chick-fil-A is a major priority. While this often starts in the kitchen, what happens to all of the leftover food? Well, thankfully, it isn't simply destined for the landfill, at least not in every case. Through Chick-fil-A's Shared Table program, owner-operators can donate edible surplus food to local charities, facilitated by Food Donation Connection.

Every day — except Sundays, when the company is notoriously closed — employees package leftover food, such as biscuits, chicken nuggets, and other prepared items, for pickup by local charities. The food is then repurposed into complete meals, like stir-fries, chicken parmesan, and breakfast casseroles, and served throughout the local community to people in need of a good meal. Participation in Shared Table is not mandatory, but the company boasts that more than 2,500 locations have opted in to create about 35 million meals in the U.S. and Canada so far.

Last but not least on our list of restaurants that donate food at the end of each day is McDonald's, whose leftover-food policy is quite admirable. To stay efficient and organized, McDonald's partnered with Food Donation Connection (yup, them again) and The Global Foodbanking Network to get the job done.

Both franchise- and company-owned McDonald's locations are encouraged to participate in food donation programs, and many do. Just like several of the companies we've discussed so far, the organizations it partners with help pick up surplus food so it can be redistributed throughout the community to people in need. It is against the company's food safety policies to donate cooked food, so much of the food waste accumulated is sent out of the house for composting, rendering, or anaerobic digestion. McDonald's also works hard to significantly reduce surplus food by anticipating supply and demand, and estimates that less than 1% of edible food is wasted across its many locations.