[kadoban]

In short: yes, there are, but it's difficult.

There's logistical issues, like: restaurants are busy and usually can't spare somebody to go find somebody to take excess, having excess is unpredictable so setting up a system is hard, having 8000 loaves of bread or whatever is too much (nobody wants to eat that much bread), etc.

Also if the restaurant/grocery/etc. is getting rid of food, it's usually in the neighborhood of not being suitable for consumption anymore. If it's not suitable for consumption, you can't really make a great case for then collecting it and giving it to somebody to eat, even if they're hungry and poor. So you need someone to have good food, care for it safely, but not want to use/sell it but still go through a lot of effort to get it to somebody who can use it.

There absolutely is some room in there for like "yeah we're getting rid of this because we don't want to sell it but it is still absolutely safe to consume", but it's just a difficult needle to thread in an area of society where there's never enough money or manpower.

[johnisgood]

N=1, but my girlfriend sells bread and when there are events she gladly gives a lot more than one slice because she knows otherwise it would be just thrown out.