Corporate Good

After weeks of hearing about the oil spill and BP’s CEO trying to convince the world that it’s really just some spilt milk. Along with bankers trying to convince me that it;s okay to pay millions billions in bonuses for playing shell games with everyone’s money, there’s a really neat corporate story out this week.

Panera Bread has converted one of its stores into a non-profit organization. You can read the details here.

Amidst all of the noise that has been made in the past year about how wealth is being re-distributed,how the poor have no one to blame for themselves, and the unemployed don’t really want to work comes Panera Bread with a novel idea. Since some people may not be able to afford to eat, we’ll create a restaurant where food will be available for a donation. Along side cash registers will be donation boxes to pay for the food. Those not able to pay will be asked to do some volunteer work around the store. There are store employees that get paid. Monies taken in will pay for the store expenses. Any excess wil be donated to charities.

Panera Bread’s Executive Chairman, Ron Shaich was at the store. Instead of giving a press conference, telling everyone how great an effort Panera Bread was doing to fight hunger, he said nothing. He declined comment. In my opinion, that was the best press conference he could have given. Or to paraphrase a Bible verse…Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.