Where Did All The Candy Go?

A post-holiday custom is gaining momentum as Halloween has rocketed from a charming local tradition into an all-out sugar grab. Donation campaigns and candy buybacks to take in the enormous leftovers are getting to be popular post-Halloween activities in recent years.

It began with pediatric dentists, who started paying for surplus candies to protect kids against obesity and cavities. Subsequently, support-the-troops organizations, such as Soldiers’ Angels and Operation Gratitude, joined the fray. These organizations set up national networks of donation spots where charitable youngsters can unload their piles of candy. The sweets are occasionally used instead of packing peanuts in gift boxes for far-off soldiers.

Schools throughout the country will be gathering candies on Tuesday morning to assist a range of charities. Some of these institutions even have daunting restrictions, like a minimum donation of a gallon.

Operation Gratitude founder Carolyn Blashek said that she had no idea this would get so huge. Semitrailers full of candy will begin pulling in soon at the warehouse in Chatsworth, California, that the group utilizes as a staging ground.

The sugar-fueled flurry gets bigger each year. This year, the industry’s trade group estimates Americans spent a record $2.7 billion on Halloween candy. Every year, mountains of peanut butter cups, chocolate bars, jawbreakers, lollipops and candy corn are left in its wake.

Presently, the constantly increasing effort at recycling reflects the spreading popularity of the holiday itself. And just as many people condemn booze-fueled Halloween parties for grown-ups, so do some dentists and nutritionists cringe at some of the places that donated candy ends up: soup kitchens, food banks, and in the hands of poor children with other urgent needs.

Orthodontists and dentists were the first to hit on the post-Halloween mandate to unload some candy. Some started organizing buyback campaigns more than a decade ago,.

Chris Kramer, a dentist in Wisconsin, offers around $1 a pound for leftover candy at his office. It’s the same amount he offers on HalloweenCandyBuyback.com, a website he started to assist people in finding local candy donation spots.

Toys and prizes are also common trading currency. At Kool Smiles, a countrywide dental chain based in Marietta, Ga., children can exchange 25 pieces of wrapped candy for a monster dump truck, a stuffed animal, or another plaything. That earned more than three tons of donated sweets last year.

But the trend has expanded. Candy donation sites are becoming pervasive at schools and other community gathering locations. In a nation combating obesity, loads of leftover treats lying around, available for foraging, are an attraction many would rather shun.

Nearly every piece of donated candy is viewed by some dental professionals and health advocats as a victory against weight gain and tooth decay.

Bright Side Dental, a chain with 13 offices in the metro Detroit neighborhood and elsewhere, began collecting candy donations for military care packages seven years ago. The amount that comes in each year has nearly doubled, tallying at least 5,000 pounds last year.

“At first, we wondered if kids would give up their candy,” said Bright Side Dental spokeswoman Pam Lenning. “It’s been the complete opposite. They love it, and they’re very willing to donate. It’s turned into this fun thing in the community.”

Some of those slightly used snacks will already be in the discarded pile just days after the loot settles in trick-or-treat bags. These castoff snacks are headed for a second life at food banks and other charitable outlets.

‘Tons’ of candy collected

Operation Gratitude, which began gathering leftover candy in 2007, is one of many support-the-troops organizations that bring military-level logistics to the task of collecting, sorting and redistributing literal tons of surplus candy.

For these groups, November turns into a logistical flurry. Five staff members and at least 10,000 local volunteers last year wrangled 760,000 pounds of candy at Operation Gratitude. It arrives in boxes of all sizes from around the country beginning the day after Halloween. The loot is deposited into huge storage bins for a few weeks, until it can be divvied up for dispersal.

Ms. Blashek said the donated candy comes in massive quantities, but it all gets put to use. Volunteers use it like packing peanuts, chucking handfuls into care packages to protect the other items. These include things like DVDs, hats, toiletries, knitted scarves, games, and letters.

The soldiers who receive the packages often distribute the candy to local children in the areas where troops are deployed. A Twix bar given to a costumed goblin or ghost in America could make its way to a child in Iraq.

“We found that people were using it to develop relationships,” Ms. Blashek said. “That’s when we started trying to get as much candies as we could.”

 

 

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