No offense intended . . .
But is this an “Island attitude” . . . ?!
Because bringing donuts to the mechanics at an auto repair shop is an age-old and respected tradition that is usually not questioned or frowned upon, afaik
I have NEVER seen guys at an auto repair shop tell a customer bringing a pink box to turn around and take the box with him, because they’re worried the food isn’t safe to eat
Probably an island attitude but It’s generally dangerous to eat food that comes from someone you don’t know.
I’ve heard stories, right here in the United states, where a McDonald’s employee spat salvia in a customer’s meal and served it to them. A homeless man was offered food with a razor inserted in his sandwich. A man died from being poisoned from accepting food from a stranger. And the list goes on.
It’s a common thing on the island, too, which is why we were told from a young age to never accept food from someone you don’t know.
With a culture like that I can see why you moved from the island. But then to New York?
Notice I only quoted this part. You can read stories all day long about horrible things people say have happened. Doesn’t mean they are pervasive truths. Go through life scared of what could happen and suspicious of everyone’s intentions and you’ll miss out on a lot in life…
And even if you give someone food with a clean heart and that person has a food allergy reaction or gets sick from the food you give, you can be held legally accountable.
I prefer the safer route. Give cash and let them do what they want to do with it.
I wouldn’t hesitate to give a shop a box of donuts myself, but I’ll grant it definitely is getting harder and harder to do simple favors like that, without taking on unwanted risks. If I were the shop tech I’d prefer cash to donuts myself . But that’s b/c donuts are a little too sweet for my tastes.
As I recall Jamaicans didn’t fare that well upon Columbus’s arrival, maybe part of the cultural explanation. I also seem to recall something about a lunar eclipse involved.
Old school Mechanics are a different bread (in my area anyway) when it comes to eating, well dealership ones probable not, but the rest of the smaller shops where you have to hustle to get stuff done and eat while working… We eat food with greasy, dirty hands… I mean heck, I ate a bowl of popcorn once that was black by the time I got through eating it… 
I’ve had donuts, pizzas, subs etc delivered to the shop plenty of times over the years and no one died from it…
The best was an old lady (88 at the time) brought my partner and I (when we owned the shop) a Rum cake on a Friday late morning, we ate it and had to close the shop for the rest of the day and sober up, man it was good and we got drunk as H@*L from that cake… 
Anyway, Cash is always great, but sometimes it means more to receive food, cause you know that customer put a little thought into it and went out of their way to help you out, just like you did for them, so it means more to the shop employees…
My second summer job as a teenager was in the produce department of a supermarket. Behind the scenes, we did things like slicing the watermelons, and that experience caused me to never again buy sliced watermelon because the melons were never washed, nor was the one knife that we used for that task.
Tom and Ray always said “Baked goods are never out of order…”
Brownies(!), cookies, homemade or not. Shows you care.
$20 is always useful, mechanics have rent and groceries to buy too.
Save the gas. Find a good neighbor.