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Local Voices

Four Panera Bakery-Cafes in Southeastern Massachusetts Donate $4,161 To Feeding America Partner, Greater Boston Food Bank

SEEKONK, MA, July 17, 2014 — Through Panera Bread’s partnership with Feeding America®, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief agency, four of its bakery-cafes in southeastern Massachusetts (North Attleborough, Plainville, Seekonk and North Dartmouth) announce a donation of $4,161.62 to The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), a Feeding America® member food bank based in Boston, Massachusetts.  The donation, which represents funds raised from last fall through June, were collected as part of the cafes’ ongoing Panera Cares Community Breadbox™ Program which gives customers the opportunity to provide cash donations at the register with half designated to help fund Panera soup procurement for the GBFB and the other half donated as cash to support the GBFB’s efforts to provide quality, healthy and nutritious meals to eastern Massachusetts residents in need.  The four participating Panera Bread bakery-cafes are owned and operated by Panera Bread franchisee, Howley Bread Group, LTD based in Cumberland, Rhode Island.

Lana Quann, General Manager at Panera North Dartmouth and Anthony Kleinman, General Manager at Panera Seekonk, as well as Claudia Franco, an Associate and Living Consciously Captain at Panera Seekonk, were part of the group that presented the check to Erin Lee, Corporate Relations Manager at The Greater Boston Food Bank.  Panera’s Living Consciously Captains provide a leadership role and are responsible for making a difference within the respective cafes and the towns they serve by volunteering at community and company events and food drives, as well as maintaining food-packaging guidelines for Panera’s “Day-End” program where leftover bread, bagels and pastries are picked up from the bakery-cafes and distributed by local non-profit partners to those in need.

“Thanks to our relationship with Feeding America, we’re so excited that half of this donation will supply The Greater Boston Food Bank with the same soup served in our cafes so they can, in turn, make it available it to their partner organizations that are providing assistance to those who are hungry,” said Panera’s Quann.  The check was presented at a Panera “Living Consciously Food Drive & Volunteer Day” at the Hebron Food Pantry, a partner distribution organization of the GBFB located at 11 Sanford Street in Attleboro, Massachusetts.  Food items were collected at the four bakery-cafes and then brought to the Hebron Food Pantry where they were date checked, sorted and stocked onto shelves by Panera Bread volunteers.  A tour and overview of the Food Pantry were also part of the morning’s activities.

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“These donations of not only money, but volunteer hours, are yet more evidence that “Panera Cares’ about those who are facing food insecurity every day in the eastern part of the state,” said Lee of GBFB.  “We will certainly make sure their delicious soups and the rest of the funds go directly to helping those in our neighborhoods who are in need.”

Feeding America is a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks that leads the fight against hunger in the United States.  Through its network, Feeding America provides food to more than 37 million people through 61,000 food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters in communities across America.  Feeding America also supports programs that improve food security among the people it serves; educates the public about the problem of hunger; and advocates for legislation that protects people from going hungry.

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The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), a member of Feeding America, is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England and among the largest food banks in the country. GBFB distributes 48 million pounds of food annually, enough to provide healthy meals to as many as 545,000 people. GBFB is committed to increasing its food distribution to provide at least One Meal a Day to every person in need within the 190 communities it serves in eastern Massachusetts.

Howley Bread Group, LTD based in Cumberland, Rhode Island is one of Panera Bread’s top franchises in the country.  The franchisee owns and operates a total of twenty-eight bakery-cafes in Rhode Island, Southeastern Massachusetts and Greater Hartford/Eastern Connecticut markets.  For more information, please contact wendy.kopp@panerabread.com or visit the company’s web site at www.panerabreadhbg.com.  Also, like HBG on Facebook at /howleybreadgroup and follow the company on Twitter @panerabreadhbg to hear about upcoming new and returning menu items, community involvement and events, employment opportunities, their Panera culture and much more!

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