How One Bag By Your Mailbox Fights Food Insecurity

One bag of food by your mailbox sounds almost too easy, until you hear what it does for families in Henderson County. We sit down with Arcavia from the National Association of Letter Carriers to break down Stamp Out Hunger, the largest single-day food drive in the nation, and why it lands at the exact moment local pantries need a boost. Arcavia also shares her own full-circle story of standing in a food bank after a house fire, then spending years making sure other families get the same kind of support.

We’re also joined by Bethany from IAM, Emily from the Salvation Army, and Sarah Staggs from The Storehouse to explain what food insecurity really looks like in Western North Carolina and how groceries connect to everything else: rent, utilities, medication, and the stress of trying to keep a household steady. You’ll hear how many neighbors are being served, why demand can spike suddenly, and how this one weekend can supply a meaningful share of a pantry’s yearly needs.

We get practical too. We talk through what to donate (think canned goods, soup, pasta, rice, beans, cereal, peanut butter, tuna), and what to avoid: no perishable items, no glass jars, nothing homemade, and nothing expired. The goal is simple and local: leave a bag next to your mailbox on the second Saturday in May, and your letter carrier picks it up on the normal route so it can go straight back into our community.

If you found this helpful, subscribe to the podcast, share it with a friend in Hendersonville or Flat Rock, and leave us a review so more neighbors can find it.

Transcript

Welcome And Local Market Update

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Hello, friends. Thank you so much for being here. This is the George Real Estate Group Podcast, which is a production of our live weekly radio shows hosted on multiple radio stations here in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The George Real Estate Group serves Western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina, and it is a privilege to share positive news about our local real estate market and community. Thanks so much for subscribing. And of course, if you have any real estate questions or if we can help you in any way, be sure to reach out. Visit us at George Real Estate Group Radio.com for more information. Every Thursday morning, sharing with you positive news about your local real estate market and community. We're so grateful to be here. We have some special guests in the house, but before we do that, uh just a quick update on the market. If you're tuning in for the first time ever, the George Real Estate Group is located in Flat Rock. We've had the privilege of helping over 1,600 families throughout the years. And if you're thinking of buying, selling, or investing in real estate, or even a career in real estate, we'd love to have the conversation. You can give us a call at 828-3930134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com. Stop by our office in Flat Rock. I joke, it's a very dangerous location between the Flat Rock Bakery, Hubba Hubba Barbecue, Campfire Grill, our dear friends at the Wrinkled Egg and Dogwood. It's a great place. Stop by uh there's amazing food, uh, great community there. Just small independent and um you know, independent businesses and restaurants, and and we're grateful to be part of Rainbow Road there. It's a tip of the hat to Rainbow Road in Charleston, uh, you know, South Carolina, and the Charleston Knights would avoid the heat. They'd come up a hundred years ago without uh air conditioning, they'd come up to Flat Rock, and it's a great community to be part of we serve all of Western North Carolina and the upstate as well. We have incredible agents. We work in the residential world, we work in the commercial world, we work with 1031 exchanges, again, whatever your your situation is. I say all this, I say this all the time. We, you know, it's uh it's a combination of uh personal development company plus uh you know advocating and helping our clients that just happens to be with houses, and you know, we love helping our clients, advocating for our clients, and and we love doing this radio program. We love sharing about good news in this community, what's going on, and and and also promote incredible work being done here by our nonprofit community. And there's a big event coming up this Mother's Day weekend, which we're about to both talk about and share about. Um, but of course, if we can help you, if you're curious about the market, if you're curious about what your home is worth, if you're curious about uh career in real estate, you know, we'd love to have the conversation. Call us directly, 828-393-0134. Follow us on Facebook and social media. We have a number of open houses. We have incredible listing going live today. You can see that on our website, realestatebygreg.com. Follow us on social media. We also podcast all of our radio shows. You can find us on your favorite podcast platform. This weekend is a significant event. The Stamp Out Hunger, the annual food drive organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers. And it happens every year on the second Saturday in May. And this Saturday, it's uh this May 9th, and it's the considered the largest single-day food drive in the nation. And it's it's very simple, right? People uh in our community, you can leave a bag of non-perishable food by your mailbox, letter carrier collects it during a regular mail route. The food's then delivered to our local nonprofits and food banks, and we're gonna talk about we have three incredible nonprofits that received this food here in the studio with us this morning, and which I'll introduce you here in just a second. But it this began nationally in 1993. Um, they've apparently the numbers I have, and I look forward to having Arcavia share about this too, they've collected more than 1.94 billion pounds of food. You know, and it's and it's held in May for a reason. Food banks often see a donation slow down, slow down after the holidays, but the need continues. It's year-round, and especially heading into the summer, kids are out of school, you know, not having access to regular school meals, and we're gonna talk about today, but it's it's an incredible way, it's where neighbors can help neighbors. You don't have to write a check, you don't have to attend a banquet, you don't even have to drive across town. I mean, just take a bag, fill it with non-perishable foods, leave it by your mailbox, and our letter carriers will do the rest. And this is uh what I love about it is how local it is. The food collected this weekend stay in our community. It's the people in our community helping people in our community, and of course also it's Mother's Day, and that matters, you know, when you know when a family is struggling, you know, you know, it it could be a mother, a grandmother, a caregiver quietly trying to stretch the groceries. Maybe they're even skipping a meal, make sure the kids eat first. It's a reality. And so, you know, this weekend as we honor mothers, we also want to honor honor the kind of love that feeds people. And so leaving a bag of food by your mailbox will help stamp out hunger. We have Arcavia with our uh here with us this morning in and I'm gonna start with our cave Arcavia National Letter Association, National Association of Letter Carriers, and Arcavia, we've you and I have been on the we've had this conversation before, but we're so thankful to have you here. And your story is so powerful. I mean, you personally have been the recipient, but you're also you've been doing this for years now with the letter carriers.

SPEAKER_04 5:41

Correct. I've been doing this for 14 years now, as far as being a carrier and picking up mail, I mean picking up food. I've been the coordinator for the food drive for about the past four years for our local branch that's stationed based out of Asheville.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Did you know when you became a by the way, thank you for your service as a letter carrier. It's it's incredible what you do, and you're in the community every single day into all our letter carriers. And did you know that they had a food drive when you first started uh as a letter carrier?

SPEAKER_04 6:15

I didn't. I don't I don't know how I missed that memo. I just didn't know. I didn't realize it, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

But let's go back to your personal story years ago. You you had you walked through a lot with your family.

SPEAKER_04 6:28

Yeah, 2010, about two years before I started working with the post office, uh, my family of it was actually a total of 11 people in the home. We had a house fire, lost everything. And about two days later, we were standing in a local food bank, and I was getting food for my immediate family, me and my husband and our four children. And as I was walking through, I was just grabbing, oh, you know, they might like this, they might like that. And I was just taking one or two things off the shelf. And the workers came over. They was like, no, honey, you need to go ahead and get whatever you need. This is here for you. This is why we're here. And they just started loading my buggy up and I left out of there with two shopping buggies full of food. But I was black, I was overwhelmed. I I just stood there in the middle of that warehouse crying. I was overwhelmed. And I know that the donation was there because of the generosity of the community.

SPEAKER_03 7:34

And you were a recipient of that.

SPEAKER_04 7:37

And then two years later, I start this job, and this was such an awesome way to give back just a portion of what I received. So I on food drive day, I've never missed work on a food drive day. I've worked every food drive. And even if I'm scheduled off, which I haven't been yet, but if I'm scheduled off, I'm still coming in to help for the food drive. I'll be retired and you can't run me off from the food drive.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

So But by the way, I mean, this is this is not required, this is volunteer, you know, it's not a required participation, but you guys do this, and it and it's uh it's amazing how everybody comes together and shows up. Even on their days off, they're gonna come up.

SPEAKER_04 8:21

Exactly. I mean, between, you know, the carriers, we do a small portion by picking up the food. It's the volunteers when we get back to the office, it's like an assembly line. They are lined up, they unload the trucks for us. We don't have to do anything once we get back. And to by the time the your truck is unloaded and you get to your parking space and you walk back up, they've gotten all your food out the way and they're working on someone else.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

So I mean it's an incredible logistics exercise, and it's only through the many hands and the volunteers that that's. I mean, you guys are doing a lot of the heavy lifting, bringing in the food, and of course it's uh the generosity of our our community and our neighbors that are giving the food. Yes. But when you're arriving at the annex, right, you're you're now you now have all this food that needs to be uh distributed.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

Right. And like I say, that's where the volunteers, you know, we thank the United Way for getting the volunteers. We thank the nonprofit organizations here in the building with us that help with volunteers. They make things run so smooth. They really do.

SPEAKER_03 9:31

So what would you recommend to listeners to, I mean, the giving, I mean, it's non-perishable items, non-perishable, canned goods, soups, vegetables.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

Please, please, please, no perishable items, no jar, no glass jars, and nothing homemade.

SPEAKER_03 9:49

Canned meats, tuna, peanut butter, cereal, pasta, rice, beans, soup, right? Canned fruits, canned vegetables, non-perishable items.

SPEAKER_04 9:58

Non-perishable items.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

And every can matters. I mean, like if you I mean, if whatever, if if you just give one, it it makes a difference.

SPEAKER_04 10:07

My first food drive working, which was in 2012, I was delivering, and this lady said, Oh, honey, and it might have been the Thursday or the Friday before. And she said, Oh, hold on a second. She had just come back from the grocery store. She said, I'm this bag here is mine. She said, I want you to get this bag out the trunk. She said, This is what I got for the food drive. She said, Everything I bought for myself, I bought two of and had one set out for the food drive. So it doesn't take a lot, you know. One or two cans. That stuff adds up. That's right. Like, say, over the past, you know, 30 plus years, 1.94 billion pounds of food has been collected through this food drive.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

It's incredible.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Nationwide.

SPEAKER_03 10:52

It's incredible. And we're so thankful for you. We're thankful for what everyone at the letter carriers do every day, every year, all year round, but also to to spearhead this food drive. It's incredible. Yes. And there's some friendly and fun competition with uh, but we gotta mention that, right?

SPEAKER_04 11:11

Yes. And we are for the past, well, since I've been over the food, we have beat them every year.

SPEAKER_03 11:20

So and we're we're smaller but mighty, right? Right. Like we're we we we have a smaller uh population than Asheville, and and we've our community's outgiven Asheville.

SPEAKER_04 11:31

Correct. You know, but you know, we're thankful for the donations everywhere. Of course, because just think when Hurricane Helene came in, that impacted so much of Western North Carolina. And I see once disasters happen, people start to have a little more of an open heart and they give a little more.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

So when it hits home, it's I mean, yeah, our community stepped up, the neighbors stepped up.

SPEAKER_04 12:00

Right.

SPEAKER_03 12:01

It was remarkable.

SPEAKER_04 12:02

So, you know, we're not we're praying we don't have another Hurricane Helene, but we are praying that you still donate the way you have. We truly appreciate it. The organizations here, uh, Interfaith Ministries, Salvation Army, the Storehouse, they truly appreciate everything that you do, everything that you give, and I am thankful for these individuals with these organizations. Their organizations are great stewards of what we give them, and it wouldn't make it back out into the community if it wasn't for these individuals here. So I'm going to pass the mic over to someone else now.

IAM’s Crisis Support And Food Impact

SPEAKER_03 12:38

I love it. Arcavia, thank you so much for sharing your story. Bethany with IAM. Bethany, thank you so much for being here. What's what's the impact of this food drive for IAM?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Uh it's uh an enormous uh impact for IAM. So we are crisis services. So we do financial assistance, we give food, we do clothing. So you have to think about the ripple effect, right? So if you're able to provide someone that food assistance, that means that maybe they can focus on their rent and not have to worry about, you know, whether they ha can eat or whether they can pay for their utilities. I mean, it it ripples out in so many different ways. I mean, we last year served over 104,000 people for food services alone.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Incredible.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

So this is our largest food drive as well. Um, and you know, we got 15 Gaylords full of food last year. It was amazing. I know all of us did, and just that's thousands of pounds of food. And that can of green beans, you know, that makes a difference, especially for the mom that needs to put food on the table.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

So it's significant.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Let's pretend someone's listening, they've never heard of IAM. Sure. Can we give a uh let's share about IAM, the ministry, and and what you guys are doing in the community?

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Absolutely, absolutely. So we have been around for over 40 years. Um, as I mentioned, we're crisis assistance uh services agency, so people can come to us for emergency financial assistance, so facing eviction, facing disconnection for their utilities, power, water, gas. Um, we've helped with medical and prescriptions. Um we do, of course, have our food pantry, which people can come and get food from every two weeks. We also have our mobile food pantry. Um we have our clothing assistance where people can come get whatever they need tops, bottoms, socks, um, always clean socks and uh brand new socks, underwear. Um we also provide work shoes. Um, you know, sometimes people start a new job, they need steel-toed boots. You can't really afford those, those are kind of expensive. So they will come to us, let us know. Um, we, you know, obviously verify the new job, but then we would purchase those for them. So that's another thing taken off of their list that they have to worry about. The biggest thing that we see is that people want a safe space to be heard. You know, when you're dealing with a crisis, it's really hard to ask for help. Um, I think anyone in this studio can can relate to that. That, you know, you don't you want to be able to do it on your own. And we're told all the time, you gotta be able to do it on your own. Well, you you don't have to. You know, that's what we're here for. And so when people walk through the door, we want to make sure that we're giving them back that dignity and that they're being seen and that we're taking what they're dealing with seriously and helping them as best that we can.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

It's amazing. Uh Bethany, the work you and I am do, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

Absolutely. It's my pleasure.

SPEAKER_03 15:38

And it's amazing the how I mean we have such a strong nonprofit community in Henderson County.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

We do.

SPEAKER_03 15:44

You guys are specifically Henderson County?

SPEAKER_00 15:46

We are, we are. Um, strictly Henderson County. Uh um Henderson County is very large. So um it's a lot of different areas. You've got Hendersonville, Flat Rock, uh, Etowah, like it's very, very large. So um my my staff is uh a little bit smaller. Um, so if we added more counties to that, I think they'd be stretched a little thin. But um, but they do an amazing job putting the community first.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

Absolutely. We're so thankful for you being here and sharing, and and again, the the impact you guys are doing in our community.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Thank you.

Salvation Army On Rising Need

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Absolutely, we're happy to thank you so much, Emily with Salvation Army. Good morning. Good morning. We're so grateful to have you back. Um, and now obviously Salvation Army is uh international movement. International, yes, and but you uh the work that the Salvation Army does in Henderson County, how how many years have you been in Henderson County?

SPEAKER_05 16:41

We have been active in Henderson County since 18, or actually not 18, but 1964. Um so that's a little over 60 years. Um the Salvation Army as a total has been in action for 161 years. That's amazing. Um so definitely we have a worldwide impact. Um so but here in Henderson County, we have been continuing to serve the residents uh for many, many, many, many decades. And the food pantry is one of our greatest missions at the Salvation Army, uh, which is to ensure that people um don't go hungry. It is well, food insecurity is a real thing, it is a real thing and it affects everybody. You know, people when they think about food insecurity, they think about single mothers, they think about mothers with six children, or people elderly people, or people that I don't know, they just think that it's maybe not them. Or not even their neighbor. But it is your neighbor. Yeah, and it is your elders. What was the number? Was it one was my parents? Um, so like for Interfaith, I believe they said that they serve one in nine um of every resident of Henderson County. Um I'm not real big on statistics, but I can tell you in the last four days that our numbers have jumped by 50%. Wow. Um so just the need that we are seeing since last Friday has been exponentially more than we have seen even last month. Wow. Um, so you know, you have very a lot of mitigating factors when it goes into food insecurity and what's affecting people. And of course, it is that rent. It is the high cost of medications, it is just everything, compounding factors of those increasing gas prices and all of the things that go into having children and the clothing and the food and the activities. Um, so that's where the Salvation Army steps in and we're able to give people hope. You know, I think that's one of the main things that, you know, when folks come in is that they're they feel they just they a lot of people don't want to ask for help, right? Um, golly, I'm never gonna get out of this hole. Um, you know, but when you go out, because we deliver all of our food orders directly to the people, we help them load them in the cars, we pray with a lot of people in the parking lot to bring them that extra assurance and hope that comes through prayer and comes through our Lord and Savior. Um so we are very, very blessed in order to be able to have that platform to speak from and to be able to give food at the same time. We also provide financial assistance, and we no longer provide clothing because our store closed in 2020, but we're very blessed for our partners that do have a thrift store so that's where they refer people to them. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 19:35

How they're the the overlapping and the support that the nonprofits work together and support each other.

SPEAKER_05 19:41

We are a team.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:43

You know, nobody can do this work by themselves. And in Henderson County, we may be the three largest food pantries, but there are 23 food pantries in Henderson County in total. Um, so it's not just out us out here on an island, yeah, you know, with all of this food from the NALC, we are a blessed recipient of that food, and it makes such a huge impact into our food pantry. In fact, every year, what I do is I try to clear out the food pantry. So this past week, we're we're clearing everything out, so all of this new food will come in, and when you come into the food pantry next Thursday, you'll see full shelves, you'll see mounds and mounds and piles of boxes because this is how the impact from the from the food drive comes down the pike, right? Yeah. So we sort all that food. We cannot do it without our volunteers and from the generosity of the residents here in Henderson County. So it really accounts for I would say maybe a fourth to a third of the food that we need for the year. For the year. This weekend. This weekend. That's significant. It is very significant every year to the impact that we can provide to our community members. Um it's so exciting to be a part of this movement and to be able to work with all of these amazing agencies and individuals, volunteers, volunteers, where everybody's heart is in a place of giving. And we are in a place to be able to push that back out. And that opportunity alone, you know, is able to spread that hope and the joy that comes along with giving. It's always better to give than to receive. Right? Um, so as the storehouse and inner faith and the salvation army, it just makes such a huge impact. I don't think I could really say enough about how much that one can of green beans means, or that peanut butter and jelly you put in the bag, or those boxes of cereal. It goes right on our shelves.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

And it's I mean the thing And it stays right here. That's the thing. It's it's giving, it's giving it's Henderson County residents giving in the it stays in Henderson County for those in need. Every every drop it stays right here. And you've both touched on this. I know this is true of all three of your organizations, and and we're gonna have Sarah with the storehouse share next. But um, I mean you mentioned it's it's like you both mentioned, and I know it's true of all three of you, it's that's the the showing up, giving people space, a safe space. Yes. You know, I've heard this quote people don't need our platitudes, they need our presence. Yeah, like they need to show up and to sit with them and to give them space and encouragement and hope and and you're meeting their physical needs, but I also heard you s talk about their spiritual needs. Like it's both like it's hard for people to hear about the the the spiritual conversations if if they can't even if they not even don't know where their next meal is gonna come from. Right.

SPEAKER_05 22:38

And that's one of the main tenets of the salvation army when we first started uh one of the first shelters in England was soup, soap, and salvation. So you feed the people, and then they want a shower, and then they receive the word of the Lord. You cannot reach someone with an empty stomach, and you have a very difficult time reaching someone that all they can think about is the fact that they haven't had a shower for two weeks. Yeah. So when you're able to go through that, that soup, that soap, and that salvation, it opens that door to the for those conversations and for hope to enter. Yeah. Um, so I really believe very strongly in the fact that you know, this part that we're doing with NALC, that's that, that's that food, that's that soup. Yeah, we all need that soup in order to move forward. Yeah, so we're very grateful as the Salvation Army to be able to be a part of this and are very thankful to everyone in the county.

The Storehouse Expansion And Full Circle

SPEAKER_03 23:37

Incredible word, um Emily. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Um Sarah, Sarah Staggs with here we go, there we go, we got the mic on there. Sarah, thank you so much for being here with the storehouse. Um and here we go. Let's make sure that mic is on there. But thank you so much. What's the let's talk about the impact that this has with the storehouse? We might just switch mics. Hello, there we go. Okay, we go.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Um, so this will be my first time um seeing it, you know, in full circle. Um, but I've also been able to uh watch uh Lynn and the volunteers uh over the past few years just take this and um just truly I mean as soon as it hits the shelves, it's it's back in the community and to the people that need it. And so speaking speaking with Lynn um just kind of about numbers and things like that, because I am a numbers girly. Um last year um it brought in um about three or I'm sorry, 38,000 pounds um of food um at 100 and I'm sorry,$1.92 uh$1.92 per pound. Um and so wholesale that totaled$72,906 at wholesale, not retail, right? So um for the storehouse um with the the size that we serve, it lasts about two to three months. Um but last year alone we put out 21,021 food boxes that we distributed um from our old location. So we are now in our new location.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Well, let's talk about and let's talk about uh the new location. Let's talk about this the storehouse and the work you guys are doing for our listeners as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:19

Oh wow. So as we moved back in March, um we finally got the the green light. We moved into our new location, um just straight down the road from on Sparkburg Highway 2313, Spartburg Highway East Flat Rock. Um, it's still on the bus line, and so we are still able to uh reach people that would take the bus to our facility. Um the per the the building itself um is actually designed um to be a multi-purpose building. And so um not only is it a food pantry, but in the event of a natural disaster, um hopefully we don't have another fire threatening us or hurricane, um, but it does um it can transform into that we'll have um a conference room, um there are uh showers, there are um for for volunteers and things like that, there's wash and jar hookup, there's an enormous teaching cooking kitchen that we are so excited to get started and helping um families um just cook out of the box that we give them, giving them some ideas. Um there's gonna be uh in the future a um hopefully a garden that we feed that teaching kitchen uh with. We are I mean, there's just uh endless, endless um opportunities for the community to come together and utilize a space. It's not just for us um to be um to use as a food and hygiene pantry, but it's it's for the community as well. And Lynn worked really hard um with Cooper Construction and everyone that has come together just to see this um through to make it possible. To make it possible. So we are we are blessed. Um we have a very generous uh volunteer base that we would not be able to do what we do if it wasn't for them. But um they are they are just wholeheartedly serving, being in the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, and that's important because um as one of the volunteers prayed this morning, you know, you mentioned keeping um their integrity intact, it does take a lot for someone to come and say, Um, I need help. Um I was raised by a single mother, um, and so um I understand I was also a recipient of food pantries um for a long time um until until my teenage years actually. So um this is full circle for me and it's a blessing to be able to watch. Um I do intakes from time to time, and I met an individual uh gentleman yesterday, and he was just so humbled just to sit in and we looked him in the eye and we asked him what how we can serve him. Um another volunteer saw that his jacket was was battered and worn and it was starting to rain. And so he came and got him a coat from our coat closet, and he just his eyes just were filled with gratitude um and appreciation. And um we talked a little bit um and he was able to share a little bit of his story, and he was just happy to be able to receive what we were able to um do for him, and so it was it was a beautiful moment yesterday, and that's that's why we're here.

SPEAKER_03 28:13

Yeah, I mean, you guys are on the front lines, um you know, serving our community, so you're seeing it day in and day out, and again, it can be it's an interesting dynamic we live in here with the incredible prosperity and and and and just growth that our counties experienced, and um and we also see on the other side of the comment, I mean there there's generosity that has shown up here in a community. Our community does show up, and there's great need here. People sometimes don't always realize it or see it. And and you again, you guys are are on the front lines. Uh the storehouse, you're the baby of the group, right? 20 only 26 years serving Henderson only. Just 26 years.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Our executive director and founder, Lynn Staggs, deserves all that. She was um, she just said yes to Jesus, and um it's been it's been a beautiful uh ride ever since.

Final Reminders For Saturday Pickup

SPEAKER_03 29:06

That's amazing. Again, it's amazing the work all three of your organizations are doing, and and like you said, the new uh facility that the storehouse now has to make an even bigger impact on our community, and again, through the generosity of the community to make make that all possible. And then again, this Saturday is the nation's largest food drive. Um, and it's it's a way to give, it's a way to make an impact here locally. The food you give to on Saturday stays in our community. Again, it's it's a and it's it's shared by the these three nonprofits. I am Salvation Army, the storehouse, and it's going directly back into our community. Again, this Saturday, uh, it's the largest single-day food drive in the nation in Arcavia here with the Letter Carriers Association. We're so thankful to have you here. And this can make a difference. This is the time of the season when, again, after the holidays, and again, this really is a shot in the arm. And as I've heard all three of you say, again, this is a you know it could be a quarter to a third of of the of of the year's uh supply. It's remarkable. It is, and so one again, one can can make a difference, but it's the non-perishable items. Be sure to participate. Again, it's it's a it's neighbors helping neighbors. This is an easy way to you don't have to write a check, like I said earlier. You're not you don't have to even drive. Again, you take it, you only have to have a special bag. I mean, I know you guys have distributed some bags, but I mean, the entire county can participate in this. Put it in your mailbox, put it in a bag, and it will be picked up. Um, a reminder again, no, nothing glass, uh, non-perishable items, nothing homemade, as much as I'm sure it's amazing.

SPEAKER_04 30:43

Uh arcavia and make sure that it's in date. We do receive products that are out of expiration. If you don't want to eat it, don't hand it to somebody else to eat.

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Yeah, it's again, yes. Common sense there, right? But by the way, let's acknowledge the general. I mean, I love that people want to give whatever they can. And again, make sure it's in it's still uh in dates. Yes. So um, Mother's Days this weekend. Happy Mother's Day. But again, this is where you can, you and your family can can uh honor your mother through this act, you know, through this opportunity to give and to donate. Again, we're so thankful for I Am. We're so thankful for Salvation Arm. We're thankful for the storehouse and in tour, the generosity of our community giving. Um, this is the second Saturday in May every year, and it's this Saturday. I mean, like just two days from now, you guys are getting ready, and yeah, it's gonna be incredible. I know you have fun doing it too.

SPEAKER_04 31:41

It's long work, but it's a lot of work. It's rewarding work. It's rewarding. You see the end product, and we come back and give the report on how much we collected, and to see the faces of the people here represented, and to know how much it meant to those organizations and to take a load off of them for other services that can provide. And that that's one thing you can with this, they can provide service help for medicine because they don't have to put that towards food. They can provide rent, you know, assistance because they don't have to put that towards food. Toiletries, they don't have to put that towards food because we as a community can pull together one day and do one small, simple act. Think of it as a Mother's Day present. Do it in honor of your mother, whether they're alive or gone, do it in honor of your mother. Just a little help for the community. That's all we ask.

Real Estate Transitions Closing Message

SPEAKER_03 32:44

That's amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much for that. And thank you for everyone being here this morning. Time flies when you're having fun. And so grateful to have all three, all of you here, five of you. And Lynn didn't say a word, but um grateful, grateful for the conversation. And again, uh, there's an opportunity to give uh, you know, so before you celebrate Mother's Day, lunch on Sunday, take a moment on Saturday to give a bag of food by your mailbox, and that small act may help another family gather around their table, you know, with dignity and hope. So thank you so much for joining us. We're here every Thursday morning sharing with you positive news about our community. And we're also here every Friday morning. It's our hometown hero series. Tune in tomorrow morning. Lynette Oliver last week received the Henderson County Athena's uh Athena Award, and Lynette is the founder of Back on Track Addiction Ministries in Hendersonville. And Lynette and Back on Track are changing, again, our incredible nonprofit community, changing people's lives and helping people. And tomorrow morning at 8 45, we're gonna honor Lynette Oliver, our George Real Estate Group hometown hero with WHKP. Uh, thank you so much for tuning in. I mentioned to you we have a lot of uh uh open houses this weekend. Um we are great, and we're here every Thursday morning. If we can help you in any way, certainly give us a call. 828-393-0134, 828-393-0134. Tune in. Follow us on our podcast, follow us on social media. Um, just again, if we can help you in any way. And again, don't forget to give this Saturday. Have a great day, have a great week, and we'll see you tomorrow morning. Maybe the house feels a little too big these days. The stairs, a little steeper, the pace of life, a little too fast. But what if your next move wasn't about letting go? It was about making space for peace, for freedom, for what matters most. At the George Real Estate Group, we understand that real estate isn't just about the house. It's about transitions, timing, and trust. We've helped thousands of families in Western North Carolina make smart, possibly moves. Closer to nature, closer to family, closer to home. So when you're ready to rise, size, simplify, or start fresh, we'll be here. The George Real Estate Group. Local, trusted, proven. Call us today, 828-393-0134. Find us online at realestatebygreg.com because your next chapter deserves to feel just right.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Thank you for listening to the George Real Estate Group Podcast. Tune in next time for more industry news, updates, and real estate tips. You can reach Greg, the George Real Estate Group, at 828 393 0134 or at realestatebygreg.com.