Panera Bread and Cleveland Clinic Launch Heart Healthy Campaign This American Heart Month

CLEVELAND, OH--(Marketwired - Jan 31, 2014) -  Panera Bread and Cleveland Clinic are teaming up this February in honor of American Heart Month. Starting on February 1st, the 40 Northeast Ohio Panera Bread cafes are offering free coffee refills through the remainder of the month with the purchase of a $10 travel mug. A portion of the proceeds from these mug sales will benefit heart care at Cleveland Clinic.

Cleveland Clinic nutritionists collaborated with Panera Bread to create a heart healthy menu that meets the nutritional guidelines set by the Heart and Vascular Institute. In addition, nutritionists also created meal combinations for breakfast, lunch and dinner for patrons to utilize. For a list of heart healthy menu items and combinations, please visit http://www.paneracovelli.com/heartmenu.

Cleveland Clinic cardiac surgeon A. Marc Gillinov, MD and Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine Steven Nissen, MD will give a heart health talk at the Panera Bread café in University Circle on Tuesday, February 4^th at 5:00 p.m. Following the heart talk at 6:00 p.m., Cleveland Clinic nurses are offering heart screenings.

"We are honored to support heart care at the No. 1 Heart Program in the United States," said Sam Covelli, Owner/Operator of Covelli Enterprises, the largest franchisee of Panera Bread. "During American Heart Month, we felt it was the perfect opportunity to show our guests that we have delicious menu options that also fit into a heart healthy lifestyle."

In addition to the mug fundraiser, the local Panera Bread cafes will be raising funds through Operation Dough-nation canisters in the area bakery-cafes. Proceeds from the sale of each travel mug and Operation Dough-nation funds will support heart research, education initiatives and patient care at the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Heart & Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic. 

About Covelli Enterprises and Panera Bread

Covelli Enterprises operates more than 250 Panera Bread bakery-cafés in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Florida and Ontario, Canada. Headquartered in Warren, Ohio, Covelli Enterprises is the nation's largest franchisee of Panera, LLC. Covelli Enterprises donated over $19 million to charity in 2013 through food and monetary donations to local food banks and non-profit organizations.