Take a chance, lend a hand

We have a guest poster today, Ms. Catte Sambora.  Catte sent this to me (and some others) as an email.  I asked her to put it as a blog post so everyone could see it.  I think it's an amazingly uplifting trend, and can only hope that Jon and Dorothea are not only proud of what they're doing, but also keep on doing it!

Thanks for this Catte.

~ Hath

I don’t normally watch the news.   Things around our house are usually pretty chaotic during the evening news hour, with usual family comings and goings and homework and practice and dinner and, and, and….  I don’t usually get a chance to even notice the TV until late in the evening, when the kid’s finally in bed and I have a second to breathe.

But for some reason last night I had the TV remote in my hand and was flipping through channels.  While passing by the local NBC affiliate channel I heard a phrase that caught my attention… “pay what you can.”  I paused, wondering if there was another NBC Nightly News “Making a Difference” piece on JBJ’s Soul Kitchen, which is now in the process of moving into its new digs in Red Bank.  It wasn’t, but the story made me smile all the same.

National bakery/restaurant chain Panera has joined the effort to help feed those in need.  After seeing an NBC “Making a Difference” piece that aired a couple years ago about a “pay what you can” community café in Denver, Panera founder Ron Shaich was inspired to use his company’s resources to help give back to their customers and communities.  

For some time, I had been considering how Panera Bread could use our strengths to make a more meaningful contribution to society.  Turns out it was a feature I saw on “Making a Difference” a couple of years ago that helped initially inspire me.  The segment described a Denver restaurant where customers could pay whatever they could afford.  I immediately sensed an opportunity for our communities and our company.  Panera had the expertise, experience and scale that could potentially expand this idea dramatically.

One in six Americans are, in USDA lingo, “food insecure” – that means not sure where their next meal is coming from.  Panera was already giving away about $150 million in bread and baked goods every year to food banks, and continues to do so. But feeding those in need -- in our own bakery-cafes -- in our own communities -- from our own menu -- that struck me as a far more profound approach to the problem, both in terms of the connections it would forge for us with our communities and in the impact it would have on the people who live in them.

At Shaich’s direction, in May 2010 Panera converted one of its St. Louis-area bakery-cafes from a retail location to the first-ever Panera Community Cares Café, where cash registers were replaced by donation boxes and customers were invited to pay what they could afford.  The experiment was successful, with approximately 1/5 of the Community Café customers paying more than the suggested donation and helping provide their neighbors’ meals.   Based on this model, the Panera Community Café has expanded to Portland, Oregon and Dearborn, Michigan.

In addition to providing affordable meals and a place to gather, Panera is helping shape the future of these communities through a program that provides job and life-skills training for at-risk youth, with a promise of full-time employment for those who succeed.  It is through programs like these, that address not only the immediate problem of hunger but also the long-term issues of responsibility and self-sustenance, that not only individuals but whole communities can grow stronger. 

But perhaps most importantly, Panera and other community cafe projects are helping re-build the sense of community – neighbor helping neighbor – that society seems to have lost .  In this fast-paced world of technological isolation and virtual relationships it has become far too easy to forget the power of the human touch – a smile, a kind word, a small gesture – to help us get through what has for many become an increasingly difficult life.

I had to smile when the piece concluded with a familiar quote from the Panera Community Cares Café Manager :  “we’re providing a Hand Up, not a handout.”  One of Jon’s signature phrases during his many interviews and speeches and soundbytes about his philanthropy, that simple sentence carries a powerful message.  Those who need our help most often crave the one thing everyone is capable of giving them:  Dignity. 

A person is more than their financial or societal or familial situation.  Those in need of help deserve to be treated as persons of value just the same as everyone else.  That is the real lesson of efforts such as the Panera Community Cares Café and the Soul Kitchen and the other endeavors of the like that are springing up around the nation.  Communities built on respect, compassion, and dignity can only become stronger.

Last night’s “Making a Difference” not only made me smile because it touched my heart, it made me reflect on how a single man can inspire significant change in the lives of complete strangers.  I’m sure Jon would be the first to say he didn’t pioneer the concept of the community café or “Robin Hood restaurant,” as he’s called it.  In fact, he has pointed to the same NBC “Making a Difference” piece that inspired Shaich as the impetus for what has become the Soul Kitchen.  But by being a public and visible proponent of the idea, Jon has sparked interest in the community café effort across the nation. 

According to One World-Everybody Eats, there are at least 20 community cafés currently operating or about to open their doors in the U.S.  And that doesn’t include the multitude of spin-offs on the community café concept that have been adopted by churches, charitable organizations, or local communities.  Local newspapers are full of stories about pay-what-you-can “events” that aim to bring the community together and allow those in need to dine with dignity alongside their neighbors. 

In my area, several local churches have teamed up with community restaurants for highly successful Sunday Dinner events.  Local restaurants volunteer their facilities and staffs and donate the food and services.  Patrons don’t receive checks; they are asked to make donations in the amount they can afford.  Waitstaffs either forego tips or donate their tips back toward the cause.  For that one Sunday night the restaurant’s goal isn’t to make a profit or to break even, it’s to bring everyone together in a celebration of community, to give something back.

Other organizations in my area have hosted special event nights such as pay-what-you-can seafood dinners with crabs and fish donated by local watermen and seafood restaurants, and volunteer cooks, dishwashers, and servers.  Transportation to and from the dinner is provided by local churches and service organizations.  Proceeds go to local food banks and shelters.

Often the most enthusiastic volunteers for these community-café-type events are young people.  They not only volunteer to help, in many cases they are the organizers of the events.  In doing so they not only serve their communities, they gain valuable experience in leadership, communication, management, and organization that will help them in the working world. 

In fact, two young women from an Alabama high school will be competing on the national stage for recognition of their community café-inspired service project.  They will present their community service project, “A Second Chance to Serve” at this month’s national Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) conference in Orlando, Florida.  Their project was based on JBJ’s Soul Kitchen concept, with the girls leading their school FBLA chapter in organizing and holding a pay-what-you-can Cajun Christmas dinner, with proceeds going to a local women’s shelter.

Jon’s public example has undoubtedly inspired many of his fans to volunteer, not just in community café-style endeavors but in a wide variety of ways.  But I have no doubt his message has reached even those who are not fans of his band or music, or who have only a passing recognition of the rock-star-philanthropist. 

Jon does so much more than most other celebrities who freely distribute their money but otherwise take a hands-off approach.  More than just pinning his name on his Foundation, Jon rolls up his sleeves and gets involved.    He uses his fame to call attention to the effort, then humbly redirects attention to the cause and to the “real heroes” behind the scenes. 

One of the things I truly admire is that Jon’s philanthropy isn’t a “solo act.”  Dorothea is heavily involved in the Soul Kitchen and in a myriad of other efforts that are never made public.  She and their daughter Stephanie can both be seen in the Soul Kitchen promotional video (uncredited of course).  Though probably only Jon’s fans ever realize the “family affair” nature of his philanthropy, it speaks volumes about his character and dedication to being part of his community – even if Jon’s backyard is a little bigger than most of ours.

I wonder if Jon and Dorothea really comprehend just how much their example has encouraged and continues to inspire others to give back in their neighborhoods.  Just by making their endeavors visible and actively promoting them through the media they've made volunteering and being part of your community something to be proud of, something that's Cool. 

I had the pleasure of meeting Jon and Dorothea at a volunteerism-themed event several years ago, and I was awed by their humility and kindness.  It’s easy to see their passion for this work, how it feeds their souls.  I hope they know how their words and deeds are inspiring generations of people to make their worlds a little better, one community at a time.

As for the Panera Community Cares Café… I hope they continue to expand.  Times are still hard with no end in sight, and we need our neighbors more than ever.  Ron Shaich makes this challenge to other companies to step up and make a difference:

But what would really please me would be to see other companies take inspiration from this concept, just as we took it from the concept of the restaurant in Denver.  Corporate America is generous with its checkbook and in-kind giving.  But it could do much more by going beyond giveaways and using its expertise to attack our country’s problems directly.  Think of the impact that our huge national retailers, with their vast experience in the procurement and distribution of goods, could have on distribution to food banks. Think of what our builders could do by working with homeless shelters. Think of what our technology experts could offer to surgical teams working in third world countries.

The possibilities are endless.  The impact would be spectacular.

And for those of who aren’t part of Corporate America:  If each one of us took just a few hours out of our lives every week or month to lend a hand, imagine how much better our world could be.  Maybe starting a community café isn’t your thing, but everyone has something to offer. 

Take a chance, lend a hand.  You’ll make a difference in somebody’s life.  And you’ll feel good.

Sources:

MSNBC

One World Everybody Eats

Hulu has the video of the broadcast up here (May be only US-viewable)