February 4, 2021, 7:31 am
The amount of waste that many restaurants produce is shocking, especially knowing how unnecessary it is. There are so many programs available for restaurants to coordinate with charity organizations to get food to people in need — or they could simply do it themselves. Instead, many places — especially franchises — opt to throw their uneaten food in the trash at the end of the day rather than provide for their communities.
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16-year-old Bryan Johnston went viral on TikTok last month after showing just how much food waste the Dunkin Donuts he worked at creates each day.
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“Every night…312 donuts + munchkins,” he wrote.
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Unfortunately, Johnston’s next video was him telling the world that he got fired.
“Apparently corporate contacted my manager about the video, and she went and fired me,” he said.
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This wasn’t the first time Johnston had made videos at Dunkin, or even the first time he’d shown how much food he throws out every night.
Two videos from earlier in January also showed his “nightly routine” of tossing tons of donuts and pastries in the trash. Another video showed him behind the counter in uniform with a caption that claimed Dunkin has lead in their matcha that causes birth defects.
Johnson also bagged up the leftover donuts in one video and brought some to a fire station and left others where he seemed to think a homeless person was living.
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Followers expressed support for the teen after he was fired, insisting that he did the right thing by exposing the excessive amounts of waste.
“Your actions had the right intentions but I’m sorry it resulted in the way it did,” one TikTok user wrote.
“Well, they made the company look worse when they fired you,” another said.
And one commenter even claimed he was fired for a similar reason: “I got fired from Dunkin for giving the donuts that they were gonna throw out to a homeless guy,” said @dvvid.antonio.
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A few tried to defend the company, but most people were just doubly disappointed in the franchise at that point — for firing Johnston and for letting all that food go to waste in the middle of a nationwide financial crisis.
*First Published: February 4, 2021, 7:31 am
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