I agree with the reason put forth in the article is correct---it was a bad model and likely poorly understood by the very people that needed to embrace it to make it viable.
Just on a personal basis, I would rather donate to a food kitchen than to Panera. That is simply driven by value. Dropping an extra $10 at Panera's might provide a modest lunch for (at cost) 2. At my favorite food kitchen that number goes to about 5 for the same number of people. I get the claim of self esteem offered by dinning at Panera's versus a food kitchen---but one can't survive on self esteem.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” ---Sir Winston Churchill
"Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." ---John W. Gardner
“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ---C. S. Lewis