Orange County Panera Bread® Honors Breast Cancer Awareness Month with Pink Ribbon Bagel®

^{Bagels available in Orange County area bakery-cafes beginning October 1st with proceeds donated to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.}

Orange County, CA, October 1, 2012 – Panera Bread and its franchisees are joining the fight against breast cancer for the 11^th year by baking bagels. A staple every October in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the signature Pink Ribbon Bagel has raised more than $1.3 million for breast cancer charities nationwide. This October, the Pink Ribbon Bagel will be sold at participating Panera Bread bakery-cafes in the Orange County area. Panera Bread donates a portion of the proceeds from each bagel sold to a variety of breast cancer causes throughout the country, including the Hoag Hospital Breast Care Center in the Orange County area.

In participating Panera Bread bakery-cafes in the Orange County area, funds from the sale of each Pink Ribbon Bagel will be donated to the Hoag Breast Care Center to help support its mission to raise awareness about breast cancer and continue to provide new diagnostic and treatment options to the women in our community. Additionally, on October 5th, the 12 bakery-cafes will donate 100% of the proceeds from the sale of Pink Ribbon Bagels to the cause.

“The Pink Ribbon Bagel has been a customer favorite for over a decade, in part because it’s a tasty way to add flavor to the day and because each bagel sold helps support the fight against an illness that touches so many,” said Brian Campbell, Marketing Director “Panera Bread is pleased to work with the communities we serve to help raise money for such a worthy cause. In the Orange County area, the Hoag Breast Care Center will receive the money raised to fund breast fellowships that enable physicians to be expertly trained in both surgical and nonsurgical breast services. The knowledge and experience acquired during the fellowship provides numerous patient benefits and also ensures Hoag stays at the forefront of progressive technologies to diagnose and treat breast cancer.

Shaped in the form of the iconic pink ribbon, the Pink Ribbon Bagel features cherry chips, dried cherries and cranberries, vanilla, honey, and brown sugar, and is baked fresh each morning by Panera’s bakers at each bakery-cafe. Nearly two million Pink Ribbon Bagels were sold in 2011, raising more than $250,000 for charity.

The Pink Ribbon Bagel concept began in 2001 when Sue Stees, co-owner of 18 Panera Bread franchises and a breast cancer survivor, began searching for ways to help other women fighting the same disease. Her search led her to the kitchen where she developed the Pink Ribbon Bagel. She sold 27,000 bagels in her bakery-cafes that first year and was awarded the “You Can Make a Difference Award” from Susan G. Komen for the Cure. To date, more than eight million Pink Ribbon Bagels have been sold.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine this simple bagel concept – created in my Tulsa bakery-cafe – would grow to where it is today, educating the community on breast cancer and inspiring those who are fighting this disease,” Stees said. “I’m extremely blessed to have survived to see the Pink Ribbon Bagel make such an impact over more than a decade.”