Panera to Sell $1 Lemonade to Benefit Gleaners Food Bank

School’s out for summer, and more than 315,000 kids who usually get meals in school are home — and hungry.

To help, Metro Detroiters can “cool off with Panera” lemonade for $1 on July 21 to help combat childhood hunger in our community. — with a location in downtown Birmingham — is donating 100 percent of lemonade proceeds to Gleaners Community Food Bank’s Hunger Free Summer effort.

Every $1 lemonade sold on July 21 will sponsor six summer meals.

Plus on July 21, Panera associates will be manning handmade and decorated lemonade stands outside of Paneras in cities across Metro Detroit, including Birmingham.

In tandem with this effort, this week Panera is welcoming all Detroit-area residents to tweet photos of their funniest lemonade “pucker face” using the hashtag #LemonAidDetroit.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), more than 17 million households are considered food insecure. Simply put, hunger is a very real struggle for many Americans. Panera’s Lemon-Aid initiative is designed to help address this ever-worsening epidemic.