Customers at any of the Panera Bread's 48 bakery-cafes in the St. Louis area can pay what they want for a new menu item turkey chili, starting from today.

Some may have heard about 'pay-what-you-want' experiment of allowing people to pay either full price - or more - when there are no set prices so those in need can pay less or nothing at all.

The Turkey Chili in a Bread Bowl suggested price is $5.89, including tax. This experiment that begins Wednesday is part of the bakery café's "Meal of Shared Responsibility" initiative, that could expand to other regions.

"But we never want to put the cart before the horse," said Ron Shaich, the company's co-chief executive and the driving force behind the concept. "So we want to see how this does, how it works, and how people respond."

"We don't want this to be self-serving," Shaich said. "We want to make this an intellectually honest program of integrity."

"We want to raise the discussion about food insecurity in the St. Louis area," said company's area director Don Hutcheson. "And we want to provide a vehicle for those interested to help those in need. What we're basically doing is asking people to step up and help their neighbor."

"It was a social experiment," Hutcheson said. "And Clayton really stepped up, helping to self-sustain that bakery cafe. Now we've got five Panera Cares community cafes across the nation."

If the new campaign proves to be successful, Hutcheson said "we may have the chance to roll this out nationally."