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INSIDE: Love and Unhappiness / Student Loan Crisis /
News Eat, Eat, Love: New campaign seeks solutions to hunger in local communities By Meidema Sanchez Assoc. News Editor
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February 2013
t is hard to imagine a world in which you can pay as much as you want for as much as you want. Thanks to Panera Bread, that world has become a reality. On Jan. 23, Panera Bread opened its first Panera Cares location in Boston at 3 Center Plaza just across from Government Center. It is the fifth Panera Cares location nationwide. At Panera Cares, customers can pay whatever amount they want for whatever amount of food and beverages they want. This means that a customer can feasibly walk away with a Broccoli Cheddar soup, Napa Almond Chicken salad and Mediterranean Veggie sandwich for free (without the likelihood of incarceration). Dreams do come true. Luckily for Panera Cares, its Boston location has seen very high contributions in its first few weeks. Its faith in the principle of “shared community responsibility” seems to have paid off. Many of those who have been unable to pay for their meals have volunteered their time and effort to sweeping the floors of Panera Cares or clearing the tables. To have a business depend on “shared community responsibility” is intriguing but risky. As described by Panera Bread CEO Ron Shaich in a statement: Now that the site is open, it is up to the community to sustain it. All con-
sumers have to do is cover its direct operating costs. They do so by donating for their meals and leaving a little bit more if they’re able to help cover the meals of customers who cannot contribute. This is a pay-it-forward model and will only work if the community supports it and one another. As college students, what will we do if we choose to stop into Panera Cares after a day trip to Faneuil Hall? Would you pay exactly what it costs, or a little more in order to help Panera Cares stay open and feed the people who cannot afford to feed themselves? We could just as easily pay less than what we owe, or nothing at all; afterall, many college students struggle to pay for food as it is. Panera Cares is not only an experiment designed so that people can help others, but so that people can help themselves as they decide who they want to be after walking through its doors. The customer can choose to help the homeless guy outside of the BPL, or order a French Onion soup to eat on the T-ride home.
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Did you know...
At Panera Cares cafes, customers are asked to pay what they can afford. Overall the nonprofit restaurants brin in 70 to 75 percent of what they would by charging standard prices. SOURCE: Panera Bread Co.
photos courtesy of PaneraCares.org
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