Panera Seeks Non-profits to Donate Food

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

I was in the new Panera Bread in Porter Square and the manager asked me if there are any nearby non-profits that would like regular donations of their leftovers at the end of the day.

Any suggestions? I will pass them along.

Comments

[ron_newman]

Somerville Homeless Coalition is the obvious local choice.

Also, there are programs at St. James Episcopal Church (Mass. Ave. and Beech St, closer to Panera) who could probably use the donations: Helping Hand Food Pantry, Women's Meal, Summer Shelter

(btw, I made the same suggestions to lanicita back in June)

[turil.livejournal.com]

The Somerville Homeless Coalition can offer suggestions, but they don't deal with food directly. There are a couple of homeless shelters in Somerville. The one I stayed in is in Union Square and is the St. Patrick's Shelter for Women, which would indeed be happy to have donations of food.

And yeah, the St. James food pantry (if it's back there again - it was in Fresh Pond while there was construction for quite a while), is even more sensible since it's close. It's a good pantry, too, if anyone is looking for help with food. Anyone can go. You don't need to prove anything other than have an id to prove your identity.

[ron_newman]

The Somerville Homeless Coalition runs the shelter in the former College Ave. Methodist Church, and I've brought food over there in the past. Also, the SHC does have food programs.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Right, but the office itself (in Davis Square) doesn't take in perishable foods. At least they never used to.

Interesting, also, that all the time I was supposedly being served by the SHC, they never mentioned that they ran a shelter, or told me how I could get into it. But then, there were a lot of things they didn't do for me that would have been helpful...

[ron_newman]

True, the SHC office is 9-5 and won't be useful to Panera which closes much later in the evening. (Unfortunately Panera doesn't include hours on their website)

[turil.livejournal.com]

Um, it doesn't matter what time it is, the office doesn't want perishable foods.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

They don't have hours on the website? Weird. It's open 6am-10pm on Monday-Saturday, and 6:30am-9:30pm on Sunday. The leftover bread should be bagged by about 20 minutes after close.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Another possibility: Food for Free (http://www.foodforfree.org/).

[turil.livejournal.com]

And Fair Foods ( www.fairfoods.org ), which is accessible to all Somerville residents, unconditionally, while Food for Free is not. (Though they are still a good organization.)

[yagagriswold.livejournal.com]

This is untrue. Food For Free delivers food to a number of Somerville programs.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Are any of them unconditionally offered to Somerville residents, though?

[dial-zero.livejournal.com]

Food Not Bombs?

[xmasfruitcake.livejournal.com]

Outside the Lines Studio, Medford

[noire.livejournal.com]

St. James Food Pantry (the pretty stone church on Mass Ave and Beech) They do a women's dinner and serve the homeless in the area.

http://www.stjames-cambridge.org/helping-hand-food-pantry/

[ron_newman]

Rev. Holly Lyman Antolini from St. James sent an e-mail to the Porter Square Neighborhood Association mailing list saying that "So glad to know about the Panera leftovers offer! The Helping Hands Food Pantry at St. James's/Fresh Pond, whose client base just keeps expanding as the economy wobbles, can really benefit!"

[pukwudgie.livejournal.com]

Little Sisters of the Poor on Highland (they run a home for low income/poor elderly folks)

[josephineave.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will pass them along to the manager.