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FRANCHISOR
he problem with being generous is that eventually word
gets out. That’s what Jeff Sinelli, founder of the 11-year-old
T Dallas-based sandwich franchise Which Wich, discovered.
Philanthropy was always a core element of his concept,
with each of his 300-plus franchises supporting two to three
charities per year, and corporate pitching in toward dozens more.
Eventually, requests for donations got to be overwhelming.
“There were so many people asking for contributions, we
could have hired a full-time staff member just to deal with it,”
Sinelli recalls. “I’d be at dinner with my wife talking about it,
and we’d just say, ‘There has to be a better way.’”
He found that solution after meeting Kip Tindell, CEO of
The Container Store, at the Conscious Capitalism CEO Summit
in 2013. Sinelli’s business card includes the line “Making
the world a better place,” and Tindell asked him how he was
doing that.
“We have our mission statement on our cards, on our walls,
in books,” Sinelli says, “but nobody had ever called me on it.”
A thought he’d had for years finally gelled. “I answered him
almost subconsciously,” Sinelli says. “I told him we were going
to buy trucks and give out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
and that’s how we were going to make the world a better place.”
Thus was born Project PB&J. Under the initiative, which
launched in January 2014, Which Wich stores donate one
sandwich to a local charity for each PB&J sold, while corporate
makes a donation to a global charity.
We got Sinelli to spread the word on how his gooey gift
initiative works. —Jason Daley
Food with thought
A simple PB&J makes a big difference
There is such thing as
a free lunch: Jeff Sinelli
of Which Wich.
WHY NOT JUST GIVE MONEY?
The thing that tore my heart and guts out about donating
money was that after we wrote a check, there was a sense of
emptiness. There was no connection to where it was going.
We sent it almost blindly and hoped it did something good.
But with a sandwich … My first day back in Dallas after the
Conscious Capitalism Summit, I made six PB&J sandwiches,
walked out the door and there were two people in need. I
made the first gift right there.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Each PB&J sale is recorded at the store level; the POS system
tallies it. Through our back-end software, we know at the
corporate level how many have been sold each day and each
month. It’s our responsibility to donate through our global fund,
and our franchisees’ responsibility to donate locally. Since we
launched this, sales are up, morale is up and energy is up in
our stores. It’s a mood-lifter. A lot of customers don’t even take
the PB&Js they buy—we call them virtual PB&Js.
WHAT HAS BEEN THE REACTION?
It’s been amazing. Our franchisees, vendors and suppliers
have a cause they can align with, and that’s easy for the brand
to understand.
We’ve had pro athletes and singers calling from out of the
blue asking how they can help. We had an ad company donate
30 people for three days straight. It’s been somewhat magical.
It turns out my daughter’s birthday is on National PB&J Day.
Now it’s something we can celebrate together her whole life.
HOW MANY SANDWICHES ARE YOU GIVING OUT?
We really just started, but our stretch goal for 2015 is to give out
more than 1 million sandwiches. It’s been a fun way to give back.
It’s so satisfying getting a roomful of people together making
PB&Js. They put love into the sandwiches, and there’s something
great about physically touching what you’re donating.
PHOTOS © SARAH WILSON