El Rio to benefit from Panera's grand opening

Panera Bread’s newest bakery-cafe, at 10604 N. Oracle Road in Oro Valley, will have its grand opening from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday.

All revenue from the five-hour event will be donated to El Rio Community Health Center Foundation — which provides medical and dental services to uninsured and Medicaid populations in Pima County — and matched dollar for dollar by an anonymous donor.

The match and the proceeds from the grand opening will all benefit El Rio’s adult dental program, which helps qualified adults receive dental care, said Jill Rodriguez, spokeswoman for El Rio.

“One of the things I love the most about Panera Bread is the charitable giving,” said Claudine Stark, director of marketing for Panera Bread. “Each and every day we give our day-end product to local pantries, in addition to supporting other local causes such as El Rio Health and Komen.”

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

The new 4,800-square-foot restaurant is the first Tucson-area Panera Bread to have a drive-thru. Eighty people were hired to work at the bakery-cafe.

Panera Bread has three other locations in Tucson: at 4821 E. Grant Road, 6129 E. Broadway and 4362 N. Oracle Road. The company was most recently in the news for committing to eliminate all artificial ingredients and preservatives from its food menu by the end of 2016.

Contact reporter Angela Pittenger at 573-4137 or apitteng@tucson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CentsibleMama or on Facebook at facebook.com/centsiblemama.