--- title: Man Uses Olive Garden Pasta Pass to Feed 125 Homeless People Over 7 Weeks description: His blog, Random Acts of Pasta, chronicles his time as a carb-laden bringer of happiness canonical: https://time.com/3612709/olive-garden-pasta-pass-feed-homeless/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-01T21:19:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:38.624Z og:title: Man Uses Olive Garden Pasta Pass to Feed 125 Homeless People Over 7 Weeks og:description: His blog, Random Acts of Pasta, chronicles his time as a carb-laden bringer of happiness og:url: https://time.com/3612709/olive-garden-pasta-pass-feed-homeless/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf2b661e66453073/69876bb0cd6848135109851f/olive-garden-pasta-pass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1564 og:image:height: 880 og:image:alt: Olive Garden Pasta Pass og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Man Uses Olive Garden Pasta Pass to Feed 125 Homeless People Over 7 Weeks twitter:description: His blog, Random Acts of Pasta, chronicles his time as a carb-laden bringer of happiness twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaf2b661e66453073/69876bb0cd6848135109851f/olive-garden-pasta-pass.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Did This Man Really Use an Olive Garden Pasta Pass to Feed the Homeless? > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9573853c-5dcb-4000-822e-66cedc6b8a6e&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Investor Tells Olive Garden To Salt Pasta Water, Give Out Less Breadsticks [Watch (HLS stream): Investor Tells Olive Garden To Salt Pasta Water, Give Out Less Breadsticks](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9AFzNIac.m3u8) (1:50)  _Published 2014-09-12. Starboard Value, an activist investor in Olive Garden parent company Darden, has offered up some suggestions for the company: salt the pasta water, give out less breadsticks, and increase alcohol sales._ by [People / Alex Heigl](https://time.com/author/people/) ## People / Alex Heigl Contributor Dec 1, 2014 9:19 PM UTC  Olive Garden's “Never Ending Pasta Pass." Olive Garden's “Never Ending Pasta Pass."Darden Restaurants/AP by [People / Alex Heigl](https://time.com/author/people/) ## People / Alex Heigl Contributor Dec 1, 2014 9:19 PM UTC “I was sitting at work one day reading usatoday.com and I came across an article about Olive Garden selling a Never Ending Pasta Pass for $100 which entitled the bearer to unlimited pasta for 7 weeks.” Thus begins a magical story of charity and pasta. (Maybe.) Matt Tribe lives in Ogden, Utah. He was one of the lucky ones who snagged the limited edition unlimited pasta pass from Olive Garden, which he promptly used by driving around the Ogden area giving away pasta to the area’s hungry. His blog, [Random Acts of Pasta](http://www.randomactsofpasta.com/), chronicles his time as a carb-laden bringer of happiness. Here’s a highlight: “I was cruising around looking for someone homeless that I could give some pasta to. I finally found one sleeping in a park. I debated on whether or not it would be a good idea to wake her up, but in the end I decided to do it. I approached her and asked if she was hungry and would like some Olive Garden. She thanked me for the pasta and said she was going to share it with her friends. First of all, the initial thought of someone who has nothing was to share it with someone else – that’s pretty incredible.” Tribe’s video has of course gone viral, thanks in large part to coverage from outlets like PEOPLE. But many others have voiced doubts that the video’s veracity: With that whole “Drunk Girl in Public” [hoax fresh in the Internet’s mind](http://gawker.com/drunk-girl-in-public-actress-says-she-was-tricked-to-1660065933?), people on YouTube and Reddit are already calling this whole thing [a well-engineered piece of viral marketing](http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2nq98o/guy%5Fuses%5F100%5Folive%5Fgarden%5Fnever%5Fending%5Fpasta%5Fpass/). Olive Garden, for their part, is denying any involvement beyond furnishing the pass to Tribe: > [](https://twitter.com/olivegarden/status/538825462672158722) What do you think? Case of well-shot, curiously brand-forward charity, or crass attempt at manipulating the tenor of the Internet to sell chain-quality Italian food? (We’d really like to hear from [Marilyn Hagerty](http://search.people.com/results.html?search=%22Marilyn+Hagerty%22&bu=&searchSubmit=Go).) Of course, maybe the providence of this clip is beside the point, if some hungry people actually got fed. [_This article originally appeared on People.com_](http://www.people.com/article/olive-garden-charity-video-pasta-pass-hoax?xid=socialflow%5Ffacebook%5Fpeoplemag) ## Transcript Olive Garden parent company Darden continues to fight off the ever encroaching activist investor Starboard Value. Starboard is aiming to replace the company's board of directors in an effort to raise slumping sales. But as it continues if's fight in the board room, Starboard has offered up some suggestions for the dining room in the mean time. Though, some is a bit of an understatement. Fortune reports that Starboard laid out a 300 page turnaround plan for Darden owned Olive Garden. The headline suggestions include salting the water when cooking pasta, carefully doling out bread sticks, and increasing alcohol sales. Starboard is not impressed by the restaurant's unsalted water. The company wrote, If you Google 'How to cook pasta,' the first step of Pasta 101 is to salt the water. How does the largest Italian dining concept in the world not salt the water for pasta? Starboard also feels Garden is losing a lot of money to food waste. Since Olive Garden provides a never ending supply of breadsticks, the investor suggested Olive Garden provide each customer one breadstick, and then give out more upon request. If less food waste and more authentic pasta don't do the trick, Starbird's next suggestion should. The investor suggested Olive Garden should put a bigger focus on alcohol sales. Olive Garden's alcohol sales are two times less than other Italian restaurants. For it's part, Olive Garden has attempted to boost sales. The company announced a never ending pasta pass on monday. Between September 22nd and November 9th, customers can pay $ 100 to have an unlimited amount of pasta and beverages. Although we ventured a guess and Starbird isn't on board with those unlimited bread sticks. It might not be too excited about the potential food risk involved with an unlimited pasta deal. 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