Panera Newport To Hold "Winter Warmer" To Benefit MLK Community Center
NEWPORT, RI, February 18, 2013 — The Panera Bread at 49 Long Wharf Mall in Newport, Rhode Island, announces that it will hold a “Winter Warmer” to support the Newport Chamber’s “Ton of Love” Food Drive which benefits the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center on Monday, February 25th from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. In exchange for donating a food pantry item, the first 100 customers will receive a free travel coffee mug and one month of free coffee refills (limited one mug per person, per donation; free coffee refills valid only at the Panera Newport until March 26, 2013) as well as a “Seasonal SOUPer Card” for a free 5th bowl of soup. Recommended food items to donate include non-perishable canned goods like soup, fruit, veggies and meat, coffee and tea, rice and pasta, Goya products, peanut butter and jelly, pasta sauce, canned or dry milk, cake and muffin mix, cereal and condiments.
“We’re extremely grateful to Panera Newport for its steadfast generosity and creativity in helping us keep our pantry shelves filled,” said Marilyn Warren, Executive Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center. “We urge everyone in the community to support this fun event.”
Panera Newport also assists the MLK Community Center by providing leftover bread, bagels and pastries Monday through Friday as part of its Day End Dough-Nation program. This program is carried out every day in every Panera Bread location across the country. “We’re looking forward to doing our part by holding this Winter Warmer to help the Center stock its shelves by contributing to the ‘Ton of Love’ Food Drive,” said Maria Spanos, Panera Newport’s Living Consciously Captain who is responsible for making a difference within the cafe and in the Newport area by helping with volunteer events like the one scheduled for February 25th.
All 25 bakery-cafes owned and operated by top Panera franchisee, the Howley Bread Group based in Cumberland, Rhode Island, participate in the Day-End Dough-Nation Program. Among the Panera Bread/Howley Bread Group bakery-cafes in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut, the average retail cost of bread leftovers per cafe, per day is approximately $400. This makes a total annual bread donation of approximately $146,000 per cafe and $3,504,000 among all the Panera Bread/Howley Bread Group cafes.
“Panera/HBG has been an incredible community partner in helping us feed the hungry,” said Warren. “Our clients are delighted to have the high quality bread products we receive each day. With such staggering levels of need – our food pantry gave out 126% more food in 2012 than in 2011 – the MLK cannot feed the hungry of Newport County without community support.”
The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center is a multi-service agency providing a variety of human services and enrichment activities to meet the needs of the residents of Newport County. The Center’s food pantry provided over 113,000 meals in 2012 and its breakfast program served over 10,000 meals last year. For more information, call (401) 846-4828.
All Panera Bread locations are open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and offer a variety of menu items -- including breads and bagels, breakfast sandwiches, creative lunch and dinner sandwiches, hand-tossed salads, homemade soups and a variety of espresso beverages. Panera Bread Catering also caters and delivers its full menu for any occasion at the office or home. For a Panera Catering menu and more, please visit a cafe or www.paneracatering.com.
Panera Bread/Howley Bread Group, LTD of Cumberland, Rhode Island owns and operates a total of twenty-five bakery-cafes in: Greater Hartford/Eastern, Connecticut (Bristol, Canton, Enfield, Farmington, Foxwoods, Glastonbury, Groton, Lisbon, Manchester (2), Newington, Waterford, West Hartford and Wethersfield); Southeastern, Massachusetts (North Attleborough, North Dartmouth, Plainville and Seekonk); and RI (Cranston, Warwick, East Greenwich, Newport, Providence, Smithfield and Wakefield) markets. For more information, please contact Panera Bread Newport at 49 Long Wharf Mall, Newport, Rhode Island; call (401) 324-6800; or visit www.panerabreadhbg.com.
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