There are a number of routes you can take through a Hornbacher’s grocery store, but all of them have one thing in common.

Any path you take probably goes by the bin of free doughnut balls set out for customers.

The golden tasty treats, paired with nearby cups of hot coffee, are a staple of each location’s bakery department and occasionally attract a couple of shoppers lingering next to them for a chat.

There’s a history that goes along with these puffs of perfection. Back in 2008, The Forum ran a story about a fundraising effort by Osgood Hornbacher’s Manager Craig Lemieux, who promised to work two hours in each department of his store where at least half of his employees helped raise money for the United Way of Cass-Clay.

“Everybody has their favorite ugly job they want me to do,” Lemieux said at the time. He’s pictured making a rack of fresh, hot doughnut balls, which we can only assume is not the ugliest of ugly jobs.

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The free doughnut ball goes back further than 2008, says Matt Leiseth, president of Hornbacher’s. At first, he can only confirm that the grocery store chain has been setting the balls out for as long as he’s worked there – at least 24 years.

Lieseth then checks with some long-time employees of Hornbacher’s to dig up a more precise answer. And while he doesn’t find one, he says they can at least date the doughnut balls back to 1980.

That’s 35 years worth of free doughnut balls for Hornbacher’s customers which, in turn, begs the question: Just how many of these are given away?

Leiseth estimates they make and give away about 15,000 doughnut balls a week between all Hornbacher’s locations. Thats a total of 780,000 doughnut balls a year.

At an inch and a half in diameter, that’s 18.5 miles of doughnut balls, or roughly the distance from the Village West Hornbacher’s to the Moorhead location and back … twice.

That total, he adds, will probably climb over a million doughnut balls once they begin to factor in their new south Moorhead location.

Each of these, Leiseth says, is a small gesture from the store to everyone who walks in, young or old.

“It’s something they know will be there for them to nibble on, and we do it for adults and kids,” he says, “it makes the shopping experience a little bit better.”