Courtesy of Saint Louis Bread Co.
By now, all regular customers at St. Louis Bread Company have noticed the turkey chili in a sourdough bread bowl, also known as the “Meal of Shared Responsibility.” The suggested retail price is $5.89, but customers are allowed to pay what they can (or even not pay at all), to get a hearty, healthy meal.
Kate Antonacci, director of societal impact initiatives for Panera Bread, oversees this new meal program and explained that the community is supporting it. Roughly 40 percent of patrons who order the turkey chili in a bread bowl pay the suggested retail price, 30 percent pay more than $5.89, and the other 30 percent pay less than $5.89.
“It fluctuates in any given month,’ says Antonacci. “But generally that’s what we’re seeing and you can see patterns. Towards the end of the month, people are paying less, and then, at the start of a new month, people pay more again.”
Panera has always fought hunger. Since it opened, it has donated leftover food to local organizations as part of its Day-End Dough-Nation program. In St. Louis, the cafés have a donation box near the register for Operation Food Search, an area food bank that distributes food to shelters, soup kitchens, and senior centers.
“But we wanted to do more,” says Antonacci. “We wanted to really push ourselves and ask how can we really make a difference in helping our communities.”
They started with Panera Cares Community Cafés, where every price is a suggested donation, and you pay what you can. The first Panera Cares Community Café opened in Clayton three years ago.
Antonacci was behind the location choice, and for those who look askance at a community café being in Clayton, she explained that the café is easily accessed with public transportation, and the jail across the street assures a diversity of clients. Plus, in order to survive, a community café needs to have a significant portion of its clientele be able to afford to pay more than the suggested retail price.
The goal for the Community Café is to be sustained by the community, and Antonacci admits that it is not always easy, but it has made an impact. That’s why they introduced the “Meal of Shared Responsibility” in the hopes that this too can sustain itself and offer a cheap, hearty, nutrient-dense meal to those in need.
While America is fighting an obesity epidemic, Gary Wells, director of community partnerships at Operation Food Search, and Luann Oros, community consultant on hunger and homelessness and founder of The Bridge, explained that food insecurity is still a problem in St. Louis. Here are some statistics they shared:
- 41.3 percent of all children in St. Louis city are in families with incomes below the poverty level.
- 135,000 kids in St. Louis are at risk for hunger.
- 85 percent of children enrolled in St. Louis Public Schools rely on free or reduced-cost meal programs.
- 17.5 percent of St. Louisans experience daily food insecurity.
- In 2009, the USDA’s report on Household Food Security in the United States determined that 50.1 million Americans, including 17 million children, lack the means to get enough nutritious food on a regular basis or are food insecure.
