A grocery store had the option of throwing out all the perishable food in its coolers to the trash after its refrigerators malfunctioned, but it didn't. Instead, the store donated the entire 35,000 pounds of food to a charity.

The incident happened at a Trader Joe's located in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

The store was unfortunate to experience a technical issue that caused some cooler malfunction.

This is a problem that sometimes faces businesses operating in the industry. Typically, these outfits call an expert to fix the problem before the food goes bad and turns into garbage.

Due to this, a lot of perfectly good foods end up in the trash.

However, instead of letting all that food go to waste, Trader Joe's decided to donate all of it to charity. This is part of the store's policy.

Food Donated To Kalamazoo Gospel Mission

Consequently, the groceries involved in cooler malfunction were all donated to Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, a local shelter that serves more than 600 meals to the homeless people in the city every day.

About 95% of the food the mission handles is donated. However, they admit that Trader Joe's donation is the greatest single contribution they have ever received.

While speaking to the media, Greg Weaver, who is the Director of Food Service at the mission, said this:

"They called us and we were able to mobilize a team within an hour that consisted of staff and volunteers."

"They just really exemplified a culture of generosity and we're just so thankful for them."

Clearly, what turned out to be a terrible misfortune for Trader Joe's was an incredible fortune for the charity outfit.

On the plus side, the popular store can at least take comfort in knowing that the food that could have gotten thrown out due to cooler malfunction helped feed the hungry in the community. Feeding several hungry, homeless people is worth more than allowing a lot of good food to go to waste.