$4.50 a Day

Panera Bread, in the business of healthy food, sees addressing hunger as a critical issue connected to their core competencies. They have historically donated unused food to local agencies, provided in-kind donations to community events, and collected donations at point-of-sale "breadboxes." More recently, they created Panera Cares Cafes, non-profit, pay-what-you-can sites that even accept volunteer work in lieu of payment for food so that anyone can receive a nutritious meal.

As part of Hunger Action Month, a month of awareness sponsored by Feeding America, a network of food banks, Panera CEO Ron Shaich has committed to the organization's SNAP challenge by eating on no more than $4.50 a day for a week beginning on September 14.

SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, is the lifeline for the almost 50 million Americans, 16 million of whom are children, who do not have enough to eat. Feeding America estimates that 1 in 6 people in the U.S. experience hunger. SNAP, however, provides only a $4.50 per day allowance to individuals and families who live in poverty. For those of us accustomed to spending twice that or more per meal, the idea of eating nutritiously on less than $5.00 each day seems impossible. Follow Shaich on LinkedIn to see how he fares experiencing huger as so many of our fellow citizens do each day.

"Challenging Myself to Experience Hunger" by Panera CEO, Ron Shaich

Note: In his blog post announcing his participation in the SNAP challenge, Shaich mentions Panera's Societal Impact Steering Committee. Given the topic of my blog, I am very interested in this committee, but haven't been able to find much about it online. I will continue to research and post any updates.