Panera Bread's Pink Ribbon Bagel Promoting Breast Cancer Awareness

Panera Bread’s signature Pink Ribbon Bagel has returned for its tenth year to help support the fight against breast cancer.
Throughout October, area Panera Bread bakery-cafes will donate 25¢ of every Pink Ribbon Bagel purchase to Memorial Hermann Breast Care Centers, supporting their breast cancer research and diagnostic intervention efforts.
The Panera Pink Ribbon Bagel is baked fresh daily from fresh dough by artisan bakers in each participating bakery-cafe. The bagel features cherry chips, dried cherries and cranberries, vanilla, honey and brown sugar.
The uniquely-colored bakery item follows the tradition of “thinking pink” during the month of October in the effort to help eradicate breast cancer disease. Sue Stees, one of Panera Bread’s first franchisees and a breast cancer survivor, developed the idea for the Pink Ribbon Bagel in 2001 as a way to help support the cause.
“In the United States, one in eight women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. We are doing everything we can to promote screening, education and early detection, and this campaign will help us save more lives,” said DaWanda Nelson, chief operating officer of Memorial Hermann Imaging and Breast Care Centers. “We are so grateful to Panera for their support.”
Panera Bread’s John Segura said the eateries were “devoted to serving the members of our local community, many of whom have had their lives touched by breast cancer.”
“Memorial Hermann has long been a champion of the cause, and we are honored to join them in the fight,” Segura said.
Panera Bread company-owned and franchise-operated bakery-cafes also support charitable causes through its “Operation Dough-Nation” program. They support Children’s Memorial Hermann hospital in the Texas Medical Center and have donated more than $15,000 dollars in the last year through this program.
Since it was founded in 1992 to formalize Panera’s commitment to community involvement, Operation Dough-Nation has contributed both monetary and bread donations through its Community Breadbox and Day-End Dough-Nation programs to local food pantries, hunger relief agencies and other community organizations. In 2009, Panera Bread bakery-cafes collectively donated a retail value of more than $50 million of bread and baked goods to charitable organizations helping to feed the hungry in our local communities.