Panera Seekonk Spring Cleaning Drive

SEEKONK, MA  — In keeping with its new “Live Consciously, Eat Deliciously” message, the Panera Bread at 211A Highland Avenue (Rt. 6) in Seekonk, Massachusetts, announces it will be holding a Spring Cleaning Drive for the East Bay Community Action Program of East Providence, Rhode Island this Tuesday, May 21^st from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.  In exchange for donating an 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 Seekonk and until June 20^th, 2013).  Panera samples, raffle prizes and face painting will also be part of the fun.  Recommended personal hygiene and toiletry products to collect include soap, shaving cream, razors, tooth paste, shampoo & conditioner, laundry detergent, bleach, paper towels, toilet paper, band-aids and cleaning or disinfectant spray.

The East Bay Community Action Program (EBCAP), located at 100 Bullocks Point Avenue in East Providence, Rhode Island, is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation that provides a wide array of health and human services to the residents of Rhode Island’s East Bay.  A Rhode Island Food Bank (Feeding America) member agency, one of the programs the EBCAP provides is a food pantry for local residents in need.  Towards that end, EBCAP picks up Panera Seekonk’s leftover bread, bagels and pastries every Wednesday evening and distributes them to those in the local community as part of Panera’s “Day-End” program.  This program is carried out every day in every Panera Bread location across the country.

“Partnerships with the corporate community are the backbone of our support network, especially in this age of cuts to social services,” said Judy Macedo, Family Advocate for the Safety Net Program at EBCAP.  “We’ve developed a close relationship with Panera over the past few years as they have been very generous and supportive by offering their leftover baked goods for our food pantry clients.  Now we are taking that program a step further with the Spring Cleaning Drive which will allow us to stock up on personal hygiene and toiletry products for our pantry’s ‘Choice’ section.”

Claudia Franco, Panera Seekonk’s Living Consciously Captain who resides in East Providence, is responsible for making a difference within the cafe and in the Seekonk area by helping to organize volunteer events like the one scheduled for May 21^st.  “This drive is important because often times people in need do not always have the necessary cleaning supplies as they can end up lower on the priority list when compared to food items.”

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.

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, pasta, 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. The breakfast, lunch and dinner assortment is sure to impress every time.  For a Panera Bread 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 Seekonk at 211A Highland Avenue, Seekonk, Massachusetts; call (508) 336-1401; or visit www.panerabreadhbg.com.

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