A Businessman has filed a $1.8 million lawsuit in Dauphin County Court. Nathaniel Hawkins, a Palmyra businessman, claims in the case that his distribution firm lost a lucrative contract to deliver baked goods to Giant Foods supermarkets because he is a Seventh-day Adventist. He contends that the Tasty Baking Co. of Philadelphia wrongly canceled his firm's distribution contract in the spring because he wouldn't break his church's Sabbath observance to make deliveries on Saturdays. In responses filed to the suit, Tasty Baking and Giant Food Stores are denying Hawkins' religious discrimination claim and a separate allegation that Hawkins, who is black, was also a victim of racial discrimination. They contend that Hawkins and his company, Taste N.C. Inc., simply didn't provide service that was up to par with the terms of its contract. Giant Food Stores officials claim their company shouldn't even be involved in the suit because Giant never had a contract with Hawkins' firm and didn't control his employment. In his suit, Hawkins claims he signed a contract to buy a midstate sales territory to distribute Tasty Baking products in February 2009. Several customers in that territory were Giant stores. Hawkins contends that his company served the route successfully and increased sales by $1, 300 a month. But in April, Tasty Baking notified Hawkins that he had violated his contract, and in May it canceled that pact on grounds of substandard service, the suit states. That shortfall, Tasty Baking insisted, involved subpar service to a Giant store in Lancaster in March and April. Hawkins contends that he provided adequate delivery service to that store and that Tasty Baking and Giant conspired to illegally void his contract based on his unwillingness to provide Saturday delivery. He claims he compensated for that lack of Saturday service by delivering as soon as possible after the end of his church's Sabbath observance and by making Sunday deliveries. In seeking dismissal of the suit, Tasty Baking claims the contract termination stemmed from the fact that Giant officials expressed dissatisfaction with his general service on "numerous occasions.

Tasty Baking Co. will cut 32 jobs at its former corporate headquarters in Philadelphia, a move decided upon after it was acquired by Flower Foods Inc. this year. The jobs will be cut over the next few months. Those whose jobs are being cut will receive severance packages and the company will work with local and state agencies to help them find new jobs.

Tasty Baking Co.(NasdaqGM:TBC) dropped from NASDAQ Composite Index