Let’s Help Panera Bread Take Corporate Social Responsibility to a New Level - A blog by Cindy Hoot
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Let’s Help Panera Bread Take Corporate Social Responsibility to a New Level
I was surprised to read about Panera Bread’s new cafe in St. Louis dubbed the St. Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe. The concept is simple yet groundbreaking… take whatever you want to eat or drink and instead of paying a cashier, drop whatever you can afford into a donation box. And if you don’t have any money, you can donate your time. Crazy concept, I know.
According to a great article in USA Today, Ron Shaich, who stepped down as Panera’s CEO last week, is “trying to find out what human nature is all about” and is banking on our humanity. He said he’s dreamed about doing something like this for years. So the question is will Panera’s social experiment prove that goodness does exist in the human condition or that we are fundamentally selfish creatures at heart?
The new St. Louis Bread Company Cares Cafe looks and feels just like its for-profit sister, Panera Bread, even the menu is the same. The only difference is the baked goods are one day old. They are unsold items from other St. Louis Bread Company restaurants in the area. The exception is the bread used to make sandwiches.
