Muncie river tarnished by breads

It seems to be a mystery how hundreds of breads, bagels and buns from a restaurant ended up littering a river bank after never reaching the needy people for which they likely were intended.

Sanitation workers spotted the mess along the White River on Muncie’s east side last week. City police Sgt. Bruce Qualls recognized the baked goods as products of the Panera Bread chain, which has a restaurant in the city.

Qualls said restaurant managers assured him they would look into what happened as unsold baked goods are given each day to charitable organizations.

Panera workers went to the site Tuesday to clean up the dumped bread, but restaurant managers haven’t learned who was responsible, company spokeswoman Linn Parrish said.

That task is complicated since they aren’t certain when the dumping happened, she said.

“They may never know,” Parrish said. “There is a chance that somebody bought it and didn’t use it; that somebody went through our trash.”

Geese, ducks, mice and other animals had been eating the baked goods before they were picked up.

“I’m in disbelief that somebody could dump that much bread, even if they say they have the good intention of feeding the ducks or geese,” said Toni Cecil, a construction compliance inspector with Muncie Delaware County Stormwater Management. “It’s illegal dumping.”

Parrish said Panera doesn’t identify the charitable groups to which it gives leftover goods.

“We really go out of our way to vet the organizations that we donate product to in order to make sure the product ends up in the right hands,” she said. “They’ve circled back with them, but unfortunately have not been able to determine how it happened.”