Trying to get rid of 133,000 chocolate bars is an audacious task, albeit an issue most of us are ever unlikely to face..That was exactly the dilemma facing one Camrose woman, however, with a looming expiry date of June 2023..Crystal Regehr Westergard is the founder of Canadian Candy Nostalgia, a company launched in 2018 specializing in retro candy..Having revived Cuban Lunch, Regehr Westergard decided to bring back Rum & Butter, the Cadbury-made chocolate bar which was discontinued in 1996..With more than one million products sold after the first round of manufacturing, the company decided to produce more. However, a mishap led to the production of 333,000 bars in a single day, all of which with an expiration date for a year’s time in June 2023..Despite her best efforts, Regehr Westergard was still stuck with about 133,000 chocolate bars in Calgary, three hours from her home in Camrose, by January when stores refused to buy more product due to the looming expiry date..Given the chocolate was stored in boxes on pallets weighing 1,000 lbs each, and that Calgary’s food bank had a no-candy policy, Regehr Westergard was forced to think creatively so the chocolate did not go to waste..“I was becoming increasingly aware that if I just left the (chocolate) there, it would come to its stale date and that we'd have to throw them out,” she told the BBC. “That was my worst case scenario.”.Ultimately, she went online asking for help. It worked, with her inboxes soon being flooded with inquiries from across the world..Regehr Westergard was able to find organizations closer to home who were happy to assist. A Ukrainian church assisting newly arrived refugees, a drop-in center for the homeless and a fire department in Saskatchewan were among those who collected chocolate..Calgary food banks also overlooked the no-candy policy, while a Calgary charity plans to sell the chocolate bars to raise money to assist unprivileged children..Finally, after a stressful few months, all of the surplus chocolate bars have been accounted for.
