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Jeff Sinelli wants to change the world&#8230; with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The founder, CEO, and &#8220;chief vibe officer&#8221; behind the booming sandwich franchise brand <a href="http://www.whichwich.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Which Wich Superior Sandwiches</a> is venturing into the PB&amp;J business with the goal of giving back in the communities where Which Wich&#8217;s yellow and black buildings exist, as well as around the globe. Under the recently launched <a href="http://project-pbj.myshopify.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Project PB&amp;J</a> program, all Which Wich locations sell PB&amp;J sandwiches in-store and for every sandwich purchased by a customer, one sandwich is donated to a local cause and another sandwich is banked for the global fund to assist in large-scale scenarios where a need exists. Since launching midway through 2014, the campaign is on pace to end the year with 50,000 PB&amp;J sandwiches sold and thus $ 100,000 donated back to local communities and banked for larger needs. 1851 sat down with Sinelli to discuss Project PB&amp;J, and how he plans to change the world with a simple sandwich. When did you first have the idea for Project PB&amp;J? What was the &#8220;light bulb&#8221; moment? We were searching for the light bulb for almost a decade. We were participating and working with thousands of charities as a system and I felt there could be a better way to connect. I felt sometimes we were writing checks for things and never saw the finished product. I wanted to see something that would go full circle. I was at the <a href="http://www.consciouscapitalism.org/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Conscious Capitalism</a> conference in San Francisco in April of 2013. While there, I introduced myself to <a href="http://www.containerstore.com/uncontainable/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Kip Tindell, CEO of the Container Store</a>. He said to me, &#8220;On your business card it says that you want to make the world a better place. How are you doing that?&#8221; No one has ever called me out on one of the values or the mission of the company. There are a lot of brands that have their mission or their values on the wall but don&#8217;t live them. I didn&#8217;t want to be one of those companies. That was a moment that changed my life. I told Kip right there that I was going to get a truck and pass out PB&amp;J sandwiches to those in need. I told him then, and I still believe now, that we can make the world a better place through the simplicity of a PB&amp;J sandwich. So how did the program get off the ground? Was there any research and development involved in launching it? As soon as I landed in Dallas after Conscious Capitalism, I went to our headquarters location, made two PB&amp;J sandwiches, walked outside, found two people in need, and gave them the sandwiches. So, the program started immediately. I made a promise to Kip, the universe, my wife, and myself - and I wanted to make sure I stuck to it. From there, we spent time putting the program together and it launched soon afterward. Tell me about the PB&amp;J sandwiches themselves. We have great partners with <a href="http://www.hormel.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="">Hormel</a> and their <a href="http://www.peanutbutter.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="">Skippy</a> peanut butter, as well as our bread company, <a href="https://www.turano.com/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="">Turano Baking Company</a>, who makes a great bread to complement the PB&amp;J. We are still looking for a jelly partner for the program. We&#8217;re open to local artisans and companies that would be interested in getting on board. We&#8217;re also getting singers and athletes aligned with the project. It seems like the program is really taking off. Why do you think it&#8217;s been so successful so immediately? Like <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/05/paulo-coelho-the-alchemist-oprah_n_5773128.html?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Paul Coelho says in The Alchemist</a>, &#8220;When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.&#8221; We were doing a spreading party recently and I met a member of the <a href="http://nationalpeanutboard.org/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">National Peanut Board</a> who was there and they loved the idea. So, the week before Easter, they&#8217;ll have a spot set up for us where we&#8217;ll do a spreading party in New York City. A poster with the poem <a href="http://emerson-legacy.tamu.edu/Ephemera/Success.html?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">&#8220;Success&#8221; by Ralph Waldo Emerson</a> hangs in my office, and a portion of that poem is a message that I live my life by: &#8220;To leave the world a bit better.&#8221; What does the future of Project PB&amp;J look like? In 2015, we&#8217;re putting a system-wide goal to make over 1-million PB&amp;J sandwiches. If we do that, that&#8217;s a lot of sandwiches, and a lot of effort, and a lot of people who will be able to put something in their stomach that might not otherwise have that. This is a customer-funded initiative, so if the customers don&#8217;t believe in it then we have nothing. If we get them on board, we will hit our goal of 1 million PB&amp;J sandwiches and even more. Project PB&amp;J has the potential to have its own identity outside of Which Wich. We&#8217;re excited to hear from folks in corporate America who are calling us up interested in a great team-building event for a spreading party. We&#8217;re always excited to share that vibe and experience with them. What does PB&amp;J mean to you? It&#8217;s the first real culinary or kitchen experience that I had as a child. I remember making PB&amp;J sandwiches with my mom in the kitchen. It&#8217;s one of the great memories that I have. When I met my wife, Courtney, she basically lived on Diet Coke and peanut butter. We&#8217;ve had that in common. During my business career, there were times that it wasn&#8217;t rosy, and I was just eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because that&#8217;s all I could afford. You hear about <a href="http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/mavericks/post/_/id/4675440/mark-cuban-discusses-entrepreneurial-spirit?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Mark Cuban eating mustard and ketchup sandwiches</a>, and maybe mine cost a little bit more, but I think it&#8217;s important to have that literal and metaphorical hunger in your stomach to make you strive for success and improve the world around you. Tell me about the impact that you&#8217;ve seen since the program began. I&#8217;ve been coast to coast, from Buffalo to Seattle and places in between, to support Project PB&amp;J because it really means that much to me. We went on a search and rescue mission with <a href="http://www.ugm.org/site/PageServer?pagename=default&utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Seattle&#8217;s Union Gospel Mission</a> to distribute PB&amp;Js. At night, we were in some of the remote areas of the greater Seattle area. We were in areas most people don&#8217;t venture into, but we got to see the true environment where poverty and hunger lives. It was a real eye-opening experience. There were corporate team members who went out with us and Seattle&#8217;s Union Gospel Mission that came back and told me that it changed their lives. After a function in Dallas, we had several PB&amp;Js left over so I asked Courtney if she would go around with me and find people who could use a sandwich. We visited areas of Dallas and found people in need and were able to pass out those PB&amp;J sandwiches. It was awesome for Courtney and me to experience that together. We also do 100 PB&amp;Js for the <a href="http://www.dcac.org/?utm_source=1851franchise.com&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=spreading-the-love-with-which-wich-1223" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Dallas Children&#8217;s Advocacy Center</a>. These kids are filing in and out of the center and they all get a PB&amp;J. Courtney has been instrumental in that partnership and it&#8217;s been an extremely rewarding experience for both of us. What have been some of the impacts that Project PB&amp;J have had on you and the company from a business perspective? It creates better conversations with my franchise partners. It&#8217;s become a filter to have better and deeper conversations about the brand with not only franchise partners, but also vendor organizations and those that work with the brand. We&#8217;ve also already started to see a correlation from investment in the program, and thus the community, and an increase in sales. Jay Goldstein, a Which Wich franchisee in Colorado, just opened a new store in Fort Collins. He told me that people showed up at the new store because of Project PB&amp;J and said the program was actually driving people in. It does pay when you put a purpose above your profits. Jay tracks it every day and sends corporate an update on his success. We&#8217;re seeing this attempt to improve our communities lead to financial success for our franchisees as well. It&#8217;s a win-win. Project PB&amp;J also provides something for our teams to rally behind and it builds a great team mentality in our stores that correlates to a successful atmosphere. As chief vibe officer, it&#8217;s my job to keep the energy going. If I can call up one of our franchisees and congratulate them on their great success story and motivate them to keep up the great work, then I&#8217;m always happy to do so. This movement is just getting started and I&#8217;m excited to see how far we can take it to leave the world a bit better, one PB&amp;J at a time.

1851 Franchise

How Which Wich CEO Jeff Sinelli Aims To Change the World With a PB&J Sandwich.


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