mutual buns

At 4 in the afternoon, I’m talking to a First Federal Bank of California investment advisor about mutual funds. A woman walks by and drops a loaf of sliced white bread onto his desk. “Is that your daily bread?” I ask.

Well, yeah. When local physician Bill Mortensen founded First Federal on the brink of the Depression in 1929, even people lucky enough to win a job at the Santa Monica bank sometimes didn’t have enough to eat. Mortensen, a co-founder of Santa Monica Hospital, was known for his social responsibility. He also believed in the importance of breakfast, says Craig Smith, First Federal marketing services vice president, and made sure employees received bread every day. What started as a job perk 71 years ago has matured into a ritual, albeit a much less expansive one.

Local bakery Vienna Pastry deposits the wheat and white loaves three times a week at corporate headquarters to be left off in employee lounges in 10 offices in Santa Monica. The bank pays $36 for 18 loaves a week (not enough for everyone to make a sandwich, obviously). Such expenditures are reviewed in the company’s periodic expense reassessment meetings, and while hot chocolate once got lopped from the list of employee perks, Smith says, “The bread is untouchable.”