There was tons of Odwalla brand juice we were giving out in the beverage section of the line.

Seemed a bit strange since it was premium stuff. I remember a guy saying. “Odwalla no. Last time I got sick drinking one of those.”

Just happened to be during the Odwalla E. coli outbreak. Happened a week after that good samaritan act was signed into law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Odwalla_E._coli_outbreak

Not only can they buy food in bulk cheaper than you can, it also helps them to build out the logistics and cold storage infrastructure required to accept donations from grocery stores and restaurants.

I remember walking in the evening in a nice rural college town, and I saw the biggest rat I've ever seen, just waddling past a house porch - the thing was larger than some good size cats, and was unmistakably a rat when it got in the good lighting.

I was of course just stunned thinking WTF!??!, then walked on, and it turned out that that house was adjacent to the back of a grocery store lot, and the corner where the dumpsters were, only a few dozen yards away in a straight line... Well-stocked dumpsters clearly make for fat & happy rats!