Since the beginning of the semester, the KU Hillel Shabbat interns have been transforming Shabbat Brunch into a high class event. The first addition to spice up the program, in hopes of getting more people to attend, was featuring a cereal bar. Students had a wide variety of cereal to choose from along with the usual bagels, lox and desserts. Students were incredibly receptive of the cereal bar and came out in larger numbers than KU Hillel had seen at Shabbat Brunch in a long time. "Because so many people showed up for the cereal bar, we knew that we had to keep having it at every brunch," said Abby Durham, KU Hillel Shabbat Intern. This past Saturday, students thought it would be fun to bring a waffle maker so that students could make their own waffles during brunch. Both were a huge success with students and KU Hillel is very excited for the continuance of the cereal bar and waffle maker and are looking for new ways to improve the program.
The biggest change came when at the beginning of February, Panera Bread Co. became the sixth Corporate Sponsor of KU Hillel and the official sponsor of Shabbat Brunches. This means that Panera will now be providing bagels, cream cheese, and baked goods for every brunch. Students were very excited because Panera is a very popular eatery for KU students. The new improvements of Shabbat Brunch have increased the amount of students that come to KU Hillel on Saturday mornings and it has spread the word throughout campus that Shabbat Brunch is the place to be.
The partnership between KU Hillel and Panera Bread is continuously evolving. Included in the corporate sponsorship, Panera Bread will be providing the bagels, cream cheese and baked goods for KU Hillel’s monthly Shabbat Brunches, the Spring Golf Tournament in April as well as the Graduation Brunch in May.
Some of the benefits Panera Bread will be receiving as a corporate sponsor is having their information displayed on KU Hillel’s website, listed a corporate sponsor on KU Hillel’s weekly email blast, signage in the KU Hillel Buchbinder Family Suite, a hole sponsorship at KU Hillel’s Spring Golf Tournament as well as a 4 person team at the Golf Tournament.