Restaurant Neighbor Award 2008 Finalist
Missouri

Panera Bread LLC
St. Louis, MO

Panera makes and sells a lot of bread on any given day at its 515 restaurants, but there’s plenty unsold by closing time. So the popular eatery donates all bread, bagels and pastries at the end of each day to food pantries and other nonprofit organizations, including senior citizens, children’s and community outreach groups. The “Day-End Dough-Nation” program began informally when Panera opened in 1981 and became a company-wide initiative in 1992. The Operation Dough-Nation team, located in the company’s support center, reviews and schedules each organization participating in the program. Then, the Panera Bread associates at each bakerycafé package the leftover baked goods each evening and deliver them to more than 1,300 participating organizations across the United States.

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