When situations change and routines adjust, we sometimes find ourselves trying new and unexpected things. At Panera, we are committed to providing a good meal with clean ingredients when you need us, and now is no different. To help you enjoy your Panera favorites in a way that helps protect you and others, we’ve introduced some changes to the way we’re operating. As we all embrace social distancing, we want to introduce you to our contactless food delivery and low-contact drive thru and Rapid Pick-Up options.

Since this situation is constantly evolving, we encourage everyone to stay informed on the latest recommendations being provided by the CDC, WHO, and local health departments, and follow the expert advice these entities provide.

Introducing Contactless Delivery

If you've never used our delivery service before, we were one of the first fast casual restaurants to offer its own delivery service. By employing our own delivery drivers, we are able to ensure your food delivery experience meets the same standard of a visit to one of our cafes. It also gives us the availability to customize your delivery drop-off to minimize touchpoints.

Our contactless delivery allows you to tell us the best place to leave your meal in the "Delivery Instructions" box when placing the order. You can also tip electronically during the checkout process.

When our drivers arrive with your food, they will give you a quick call to review the order for accuracy and confirm where they should leave the delivery.

Since person-to-person transmission is believed to be the primary way the virus is transmitted , this safe food delivery process is designed to minimize unnecessary interpersonal contact.

In addition to being contactless, we also try to make your food delivery experience frictionless. Whether it's through our delivery service or one of your favorite third-party delivery services like DoorDash, Grubhub, or Uber Eats, we try to make it as easy as possible for you to eat clean during this time.

Some final recommendations after receiving your no-contact delivery order are to:

• Throw away the packaging immediately.
  
• Wash your hands with soap and water after disposing of the packaging.
  
• Disinfect tables and counters before and after you eat.

You can place your contactless delivery order online or through the Panera Bread app.

How to Safely Retrieve Your Rapid Pick-Up for Takeout Orders

While cafes remain open, Rapid Pick-Up is a great way to cut down on time and limit the need to interact with anyone.

Placing your order to go and then grabbing it for takeout is one of the options we offer for a quick way to get your food with little to no contact.

When visiting one of our cafes to grab an order, we recommend you follow directions on social distancing best practices to protect yourself and others as well as possible. When retrieving your order please:

• Try to keep a distance of at least 6 feet from other patrons.
  
• Wash your hands with soap and water before and after going out.
  
• Cover your coughs and sneezes with your upper arm, elbow, or a tissue, and discard any tissues immediately.

And if you're not feeling well, please use our contactless food delivery instead of coming inside to pick up your order.

New Panera Curbside, Rapid Ordering and Pick-Up

You can also order and pick-up your Panera favorites without ever leaving your car with our new contactless curbside service. Just order for curbside pick-up and tap “I’m Here” when you arrive. We’ll be out soon with your food.

Drive-Thru Open Where Available

While we don’t have drive-thrus at every Panera location, where available, drive-thru ordering can be an ideal way to have a safer interaction than going into the cafe.

While you will not be engaging with the general public, you will still be interacting with an associate at the window, so you should be mindful of all the general precautions around disinfecting often.

What Else is Panera Doing to Improve Food Safety During Coronavirus?

Given our current situation, we've taken several important steps to enhance cleaning protocols and safe food delivery. Some of these measures include:

• Re-emphasizing sanitation and illness policies with our associates.
• Enhancing cleaning and sanitizing protocols at our bakery-cafes.
• Increasing frequency of cleaning and additional peroxide solution cleaning in high-touchpoint locations.
• Developing procedures to determine associate fitness to return to work after personal travel.
• Restricting associate business travel by air and rail.
• Adding hand sanitizer stands in all bakery-cafes over the coming weeks.
• Adding antimicrobial covers for Fast Lane Kiosks as they arrive.
• Implementing an emergency PTO policy to ensure associates who are not feeling well can stay home.
• Sealing shut orders for delivery, drive-thru, and Rapid Pick-Up to further protect your meal.

For more details and updates on measures we’re taking, you can see our official COVID-19 response. This page will be updated as new details and regulations emerge.

Food Plans While Social Distancing

With the current steps people are taking to practice social distancing, getting food in the safest way possible provides a logistical challenge.

We are committed to continuing to provide you service as safely as we can. For those who are able to stock-up and do more cooking from home, you can read our article on recipe ideas for social distancing at home.