Panera founder, chairman and CEO Ron Shaich and Feeding America CEO Bob Aiken have taken part in a nationwide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Challenge (formerly known as food stamps) this month to help build awareness for the millions of people who struggle to feed their families while receiving federal nutrition benefits.The two CEOs each spent $4.50 a day on food — around the same amount a SNAP recipient receives in benefits.
Panera and Feeding America CEOs Take SNAP Challenge to Spotlight Food Assistance
Panera founder, chairman and CEO Ron Shaich and Feeding America CEO Bob Aiken have taken part in a nationwide Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Challenge (formerly known as food stamps) this month to help build awareness for the millions of people who struggle to feed their families while receiving federal nutrition benefits.
The two CEOs each spent $4.50 a day on food — around the same amount a SNAP recipient receives in benefits.
More than 47 million Americans currently rely on SNAP to make sure their families have enough food to eat, Feeding America says. However, the benefits are still not enough for many of those families and they rely on Feeding America's nationwide network of food banks and 61,000 partner agencies to make sure their families' nutritional needs are met.
“I want to better understand what those facing food insecurity may experience and I want to use my SNAP Challenge to help raise awareness around the issue of food insecurity,” Shaich said. “Since our founding, Panera has channeled its charitable efforts toward easing hunger through various programs, such as the Community Breadbox, our Day-End Dough-Nation program and, more recently, our Panera Cares community cafes of shared responsibility. My participation in the SNAP Challenge complements these efforts." Shaich described the experience in daily updates to his LinkedIn blog and in an interview yesterday with CNN; Aiken shared his experience in The Huffington Post this morning.
"I'm half-way through my challenge, and while it's given me insight into the plight of people living with food insecurity, I'm aware that it hasn't truly placed me in their shoes,” Aiken remarked. "I'm doing this by choice, and only for a week. For millions of Americans, they are struggling for months — without the promise that a large steak and steaming cup of coffee will be waiting for them at the end of the road. If nothing else, this challenge is helping me not take for granted the food I have access to, and appreciate even more the importance of ending hunger in America."
Panera and Feeding America say the effort by their CEOs helps illustrate the partnership needed to help solve hunger. Individuals, government leaders and major U.S. corporations have joined with Feeding America to support Hunger Action Month, a multi-faceted effort to mobilize the public around this year's theme of "Together We Can Solve Hunger."
According to new data released last week by the USDA, approximately 49 million people struggle with hunger in the United States, including 16 million children. Nearly 50 percent of households enrolled in SNAP survive on household incomes that are less than half of the federal poverty line and one-fifth of households receiving SNAP benefits have no other income of any kind.
With Congress set to debate a new Farm Bill later this month, proposed cuts to federal nutrition programs such as SNAP could leave many more people without the means to feed themselves or their families.
Shaich has spearheaded an innovative philanthropic effort to alleviate “food insecurity” called Panera Cares, which establishes a community café without prices, that feeds its patrons on a pay-what-you-can basis, leaving the success or failure of the venture entirely in the public's hands.
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Mike Hower
Founder & Principal Consultant, Hower Impact
Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact — a boutique consultancy delivering best-in-class strategic communication advisory and support for corporate sustainability, ESG and climate tech.
Published Sep 18, 2013 9pm EDT / 6pm PDT / 2am BST / 3am CEST