Save the Donuts
My boyfriend recently received a forwarded email with the subject, ”Save the Kosher Dunkin Donuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” (yes, with that many exclamation points). Inside was a plea - to Jews and non-Jews - to sign a petition to help a Dunkin Donuts in the DC area maintain its kosher status, despite pressures from DD’s corporate headquarters.
As I read through the email, I was utterly fascinated at the earnestness, passion, and amount of research that had gone into this cause. “Maybe it’s a joke?” I thought briefly as I read the following line:
“As a community, especially those who love donuts and egg/cheese bagels, lets all pitch-in and see if we can change the course of Dunkin Donuts direction and SAVE THE STORES IN THE WASHINGTON DC AREA.”
But the petition was real. I’m all for a community standing up against injustice, and certainly support a community’s right to eat as they see fit. But the self-indulgence and lack of irony of this entire campaign left me feeling as queasy as if I’d eaten one too many glazed cruellers. Read below for a lengthy look at the situation.
“I sent a message last night, to the listserve, that I would speak to Jim Willard, the owner of the Kosher Dunkin Donut stores in our area. I did this earlier today and now have an understanding of exactly what is going on and what the problem is. Dunkin Donuts has been “changing” there store image over the past year or so and is continuing to do this in the future. Their goal is to modify their image such as to present much more in the way of food selections than currently seen in their stores today. Obviously, this conflicts with maintaining “kosher” stores because the menu selection is limited to simple, dairy selections.Jim stated that he has been at odds with Dunkin Donuts for the past year or so becasue he was determined to keep the kosher status exactly as it is. The Dunkin Donut headquarters finally told him that he must comply with their directive, no matter what!The procedure for converting the Dunkin Donut stores owned by Jim Willard is as follows:1. The JCC Dunkin Donuts has three years remaining on the existing lease.
2. The Twinbrook Dunkin Donut store supplies donuts to all of the stores owned by Jim Willard. The Darnstown store also supplies some of the donuts to the stores.
3. Because of the above situation, Dunkin Donuts was forced to agree to let the Twinbrook location remain kosher until the JCC lease expires.
4. The Darnstown location will also continue to remain kosher for the next several months only. The reason for this has to do with some remodeling Jim is doing at the Twinbrook location, which is limiting the baking facilities at that store.
5. Yesterday, Jay Lehman contacted the CRC in Chicago and Star K in Baltimore. Both supervising agencies told him that they were not aware of the Dunkin Donuts policy change. I can not comment on the timing, but the supervising agencies have nothing to do with the relationship of Dunkin Donuts store owners and the Dunkin Donuts corporate offices. I imagine that if someone would call the owners of franchises in these cities, they would be told exactly what Jim Willard was told. Of course, the CRC and Star K would eventually learn of the changes in the Dunkin Donuts policies.
6. Jim mentioned that someone in the community called Dunkin Donuts customer service yesterday. He/she asked the question to the person taking the call about the Dunkin Donuts policy of franchise owners deviating from the Dunkin Donut normal policy to meet the needs of the community, such as kosher stores. The answer from this representative was that there was no change of Dunkin Donut policy and that special stores, such as kosher, has been and will continue to be OK with the corporation. According to Jim Willard, this representative checked after having this conversation, only to realize that “bad”
information was passed on to the person calling. It is Jim’s understanding that a call was being made from Dunkin Donuts to this person clarifying the Dunkin Donut Corporation position to be as I am describing it.
7. Currently, Jim Willard is stuck! He wants to keep the stores kosher as they have been for a very long time. He must, however, comply with the Dunkin Donuts directive or he would lose the franchise. His only recourse is to convert his stores to meet the Dunkin Donuts requirements and see over time whether the profits go up or down. If they plunge, he has the ability to present a business case and possibly get them to give him permission to make his stores kosher once again. This process would obviously take several years to determine and, as he told me, there is no guarantee that Dunkin Donuts would even care!
8. Unlike some of the email messages have implied, this issue has nothing to do with the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington (the VAAD). If fact, I would hope that the VAAD would do all in their power to contact the Dunkin Donuts headquarters and attempt to persuade them to change their directive as it applies to the Greater Washington DC area.
9. Several messages yesterday on the listserve mentioned about what we, as individuals and as a community, can do to reverse this situation. There were two options proposed. The first was to call Dunkin Donut’s customer service and express our feelings. The second was to create a petition on-line and submit it to Dunkin Donuts.
The customer service number at Dunkin Donuts is 800-859-5339.
The wed-site for signing the petition is www.petitiononline.com/ddkosher/petition.html .I URGE EVERYONE TO FOLLOW-UP AND TAKE ACTION IMMEDIATELY.10. Jim Willard told me that he was interviewed by the Jewish Week and that they were going to publish an article about the situation in this week’s issue. He said that he has not seen the content of the article, but told me that it is basically what he told me earlier today and what I have attempted to present in this message.( I have not seen this week’s Jewish Week as of the writing of this email.)
To sum up, unless something is done, there will be no kosher Dunkin Donuts three years from now. As a community, especially those who love donuts and egg/cheese bagels, lets all pitch-in and see if we can change the course of Dunkin Donuts direction and SAVE THE STORES IN THE WASHINGTON DC AREA.”
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5 Responses to “Save the Donuts”
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Daniella Says:
February 21st, 2007 at 10:27 amI saw this post on a yahoo group last night:
I just got off the phone with my friend, Rabbi Aharon Mehlman who is the Rav Hamachshir for the kosher Dunkin Donut stores in the New York Area. He was told by DD corporate that this is a malicious rumor. They are not forcing any of their stores to go non-kosher. ONE store on the Washington, DC area opted to drop out of their kosher program. They say that they have been getting a number of calls about this rumor and that it is simply not true. So whoever found that posting on the other list should go there and correct it. I have permission from Rabbi Mehlman to post this in his name.
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BabkaNosher Says:
February 21st, 2007 at 3:15 pmI blogged about this last week (abiselebabka.blogspot.com/2007/02/nothing-but-holes.html) after it was in the Washington Jewish Week. I’m not sure WHO isn’t given a straight answer. Either way, it is a big loss to the kosher community here in DC.
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Leah Koenig Says:
February 21st, 2007 at 3:32 pmThe point that you make, Babka - that losing this Dunkin Donuts is part of a larger lack of choice for kosher keepers in the DC area - is exactly the point that the email campaign and petition fails to explicitly make…and is part of my exasperation over the whole thing. So thank you for drawing a larger connection.
Honestly, I find it hard to swallow that losing a store that sells products that lead to diabetes and heart disease is really such a big loss.
What I do understand is that Jews who keep kosher often end up feeling “gastronomically marginalized” in the US because they don’t have access to many of the mainstream restaurants that other Americans can go to.
But that said, isn’t setting Jews apart from other nations one of the main foundations of kashrut? If that’s the case, maybe it’s asking too much to have our kosher donuts and eat them too.
I’d love to hear other opinions…
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Daniella Says:
February 21st, 2007 at 11:48 pmLeah - I totally agree with you. I think that as Jews, we like to be able to celebrate and express our dual identity - as Jews and Americans - and not have to compromise one for the sake of the other. The challenge, of course, is removing oneself from this particular situation to see the harmful effects these products have on us in order to realize that maybe we should choose our Jewish identity over our American one. Just food for thought…
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BabkaNosher Says:
February 25th, 2007 at 8:06 pmDaniella - in my world, the two identities are constantly colliding. When Chanukah comes, we have very limited options for bringing sufganiyot to the Nursery & Religious schools at our synagogue. The quality of what we could purchase at Dunkin’ Donuts is far better than what we can buy at the local kosher markets (and 15 minutes closer). Not as good as what I make at home :) but I’m not allowed to bring that in.
