'The Hub' with Michael Allen sponsored by Manpower Richmond
Welcome to "The Hub with Michael Allen," the podcast that dives deep into the stories of community leaders and business owners who are making a difference. Join your host, Michael Allen, as he uncovers the untold narratives, challenges, and triumphs of those shaping their communities.
In each episode, Michael sits down with remarkable individuals who have dedicated their lives to improving their neighborhoods, towns, and cities. These community leaders are passionate, driven, and committed to creating positive change. Whether they are activists, educators, philanthropists, or civic officials, they all share a common goal: to build stronger, more vibrant communities.
"The Hub" also showcases the journeys of business owners who have turned their dreams into reality. From small-scale startups to well-established enterprises, these entrepreneurs share their insights, experiences, and lessons learned along the way. Michael delves into the unique challenges they face, the strategies they employ, and the impact their businesses have on the local economy and society at large.
With engaging conversations and thought-provoking discussions, "The Hub with Michael Allen" provides listeners with valuable takeaways, inspiration, and actionable ideas. Each episode offers a glimpse into the minds and hearts of those who are actively shaping the fabric of their communities, providing a roadmap for listeners who want to make a difference in their own lives and surroundings.
Tune in to "The Hub with Michael Allen" and join the conversation as we explore the stories of community leaders and business owners who are leaving an indelible mark on the world around them. Get ready to be inspired, motivated, and empowered to take action. Together, we can create a better tomorrow for everyone.
Sponsored by Manpower Richmond.
'The Hub' with Michael Allen sponsored by Manpower Richmond
Ep. 7 | Kyle Ingram: From Court to Community – Leading Richmond's Circle U Help Center
From the basketball court to the heart of the community, Kyle Ingram shares his extraordinary transition from a Division I college basketball official to the Executive Director of Richmond's Circle U Help Center. His tale is one of personal growth and dedication, shaped by the profound influence of his father and his own experiences both on and off the court. Listen to Kyle's inspiring story and learn about the impact he's making through Circle U, providing hot meals and pantry assistance to those in need, especially during challenging times like the recent pandemic.
Circle U Help Center's journey is as remarkable as the people it helps. Kyle takes us behind the scenes of the center's significant expansion, including a new warehouse that propelled their food distribution capabilities to unprecedented levels. Hear how their approach to food assistance is designed with respect and dignity at the forefront, and how the center has become a vital lifeline for the local community, adapting and expanding to meet growing demands.
The spirit of giving shines bright in our discussion of Circle U's Thanksgiving volunteer service, an event that brings joy and togetherness to the community. Kyle also highlights the essential financial and partnership support that fuels the center's operations, ensuring that vulnerable groups like students and veterans are not forgotten. His story is a powerful reminder of the difference one can make with passion and perseverance. Join us for an episode that's not just about the food on the table, but the hands that come together to make it happen.
Hello and welcome to the hub powered by manpower of Richmond. I am your host, michael Allen, and here on the hub we interview local business leaders, community partners and various special guests, and our mission is to share unique and untold stories of companies, organizations and people who are making a difference in our community. Manpower of Richmond, the sponsor of the hub, is a national staffing brand, yet we're a locally owned franchise and we are familiar with the challenges businesses face. It is tough recruiting and retaining talent and we are here to help manage your hiring and training and provide some ongoing support. So today's guests here in the hub is Kyle Ingram. He's the executive director of the Circle U Help Center located at 19 or 13 street.
Speaker 1:Given the time of the year, we really wanted to try to talk to a local not-for-profit that's really designed to help meet some of the basic needs of people in our community, and Circle U has been serving the local community since 1979. And presently they serve over 1600 hot meals monthly, and this includes about 80 meals that are delivered each Saturday to shut-ins around our community. And they currently serve breakfast and lunch on Mondays, tuesdays and Saturdays, and their food pantry operates on the third Saturday of each month. So Kyle Ingram welcome to the hub, mr Allen, great to be here. Hey, so happy to have you here, get to talk to you.
Speaker 1:Full disclosure, kyle is a good friend of mine and, despite that, I'm having life more than having me here today and but had a lot of good times with Kyle and just excited about having him here to talk about Circle U. We're definitely here to talk about Circle U, kyle, but, however, I do want to spend a little bit of time talking to you personally about just you being from Richmond and where you spent most of your life in our community, and I just believe that you know hearing your personal story would be really interesting to our followers. So I guess, that being said, would you just tell us a little bit about yourself. You know, being from Richmond and on going.
Speaker 2:Grew up, obviously here. My father, mother, I think we moved in here in 1961. Father started his high school teaching career at Madora High School, which is down around Seymour, and his high school basketball coach, Mr John Baston, took the position as head basketball coach at Richmond and asked dad if, as a former player, if he would like to join him as his assistant here at Richmond. And it's kind of how we came about being here and attended Joseph More elementary, Dennis Middle School, Richmond High School, graduated in 1977 and moved back here in 1987 after attending college at the University of Southern Mississippi and first job out of college was with local company Bell and Warren Cable. Then I fell in love with my wife who is now a physician at Reed Hospital. She's a vascular interventional radiologist, Dr Beth Ingram, and she's from Connorsville and we've been home here since 1987.
Speaker 1:One question. When I met with you before which you know, even knowing you the years that I have I didn't really know the story. But tell us a little bit about going to Southern Mississippi, right? I mean because it's kind of. I thought that was kind of interesting how you ended up there and the people that were there.
Speaker 2:It was like old home week. There were five or six guys from Richmond who were at the University Frank Maurer, David Coleman, Chris Bolli, his brother, Greg Bolli, Frank Maurer, Jack Warfield and they were all down there to play golf and obviously attend school and for different academic reasons, and I was looking for a place obviously to go and I was going to go to Hanover College from the time that I was probably eight years of age and attended their first basketball camp down there with coach John Collier and just having to be talking with the bullies about making a visit who went down there and really fell in love with the University of Southern Mississippi and that's where I decided to go, Kind of shocked parents and those who knew me real well, but that's where I ended up.
Speaker 1:I'm sure your parents were supportive once you got going down there and once they recovered from the shock of going where.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they, they, they fell in love with it too. It was, it's very good to me. Several just wonderful people down there had an opportunity to play a basketball for a fine man by the name of coach MK Turk and the folks and my academic advisor just great people kind of kept me in line and I got out of there and with a degree in marketing and came home and next thing I know I'm working for Belden.
Speaker 1:Right. So, but the, the, the career that I'm aware of you most spending a lot of your time is doing officiating, and you were a division one college basketball official. Is it official or referee? What's the proper word?
Speaker 2:There's a lot of words to go with it, not the ones that the crowds yell at you.
Speaker 1:More of the vocational terms.
Speaker 2:It's either or official or referee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, spent 28 years with that, yeah, and I would do it all over again. I had a great career. My dad was obviously very successful at a tier in the state of Indiana and he was kind of the the one who I would, you know, idolized. You know, growing up always wanted to be like my father and you know he just was extremely successful with not only the officiating part of, but obviously his ability to educate young people. And I mean I started going with dad when I was about six years of age and traveling all over the state of Indiana and it was kind of that that once I left school and still want to be part of something, the basketball officiating kind of fell into that category and three years ago we called it quits you know the different conferences that you worked in and I mean there's probably some, some well-known coaches that you know that you came across, sure, at different schools, and you know when, when, when, when you're watching Games on television or maybe you're attending, I mean that seems like the coaches.
Speaker 1:I mean they're really giving you guys a hard time, but I would a lot of times there they're griping about calls or whatever. But I always suspect, when you're not seeing all that, some of those you did you build relationships with these guys? Or did they get to know you at all? Or like, hey, you know they, you know, hey, kyle, how's it going? Or or was it more adversarial type?
Speaker 2:of no, I don't think it's ever Adversarial. I mean, there might be a short period of time, you know, three seconds or whatever word. They're going to voice their opinion or dissatisfaction with any one particular thing that might be going on and. You know, as far as socializing and that type thing afterwards, prior to, that's not anything that we really do or did and it's.
Speaker 2:It's a give-and-take type thing, because we as officials, we don't get it All right. You know we're not perfect. We're gonna miss a few, hopefully not more than a few, because you are observed. Every game Checks and balances, good calls, bad calls, calls. It should have been made to warrant that type thing, right. But at the end of the day, the coaches, at that particular level, they're gonna say what they got to say and then they go back to coaching.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they got to concentrate on the game. A hand and their players and what's going on?
Speaker 2:So exactly yeah.
Speaker 1:I just think that's interesting, that you know that's just all the kind of personalities that you would have got to meet over. You know, that long of a career, you know it's probably kind of a neat thing that you got to experience.
Speaker 2:It was a 28 years of just a lot of fun. And I don't miss the, the travel you know people ask you know, what is it that you miss the most about it? And it's the interaction with the guys you know, the ones that you work with day in, die, you know, day out. But the travel with the airports, the rental cars, the hotels, the missed flights, the, you know, catching a new connection After a while, that's. I don't miss that one bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so well, congratulations on such an awesome career doing that, and so you know I Want to go back to something that we ask everyone that's on the hub is Because of our association in my association with manpower. What was your first job that you ever did that you can remember like you would have got a paycheck or someone paid you to do?
Speaker 2:It was your father, okay, room and power, that had a opportunity to work at Phillips recording out on Rich road, rich road. Okay, summer between my high school senior year in my freshman year of college and I Believe, if I'm correct, your father was a student manager For my dad and mr Baston with the basketball program. Oh, that's right. Yeah and when the opportunity came to look for work, you know, dad said good, I'll see, mr Allen, and your father hooked me up and that was my first real paycheck, my first real job.
Speaker 1:You know I and it's so funny that you Tell that story about having that job, because I never knew that and all the times that you know I worked at manpower and everything that that it just never came up to hey, I worked there at one time, you know, so At that time they were probably making records, not even or was the cassettes or eight tracks, oh no no, it was albums, yeah, yeah. Funny, how I mean, times have changed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, quite a bit.
Speaker 1:I mean later, that facility I think transitioned even then to Making compact disc and now that that's even gone, you know. So that's pretty made you remember. You remember what you got made an hour back then.
Speaker 2:Whatever it was, I was overpaid.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it probably wasn't more than a couple, two or three bucks, I don't know. But well, that's really cool. So as far as circle you, can you go into a little bit about the history of the organization, kind of how it got started and because it's been around since 79, I believe I got that part right.
Speaker 2:And so just tell me about circle you and when a lady who lived in the home there one day walked out her front door and was I don't know if she was breaking up leads or something in her front yard and there was two or three folks that came by on the on the sidewalk there and they looked a little bit despondent and she asked if you know she could do anything to help them out. And they said well, we're hungry. So she offered them to come inside and gave them bowl of soup and a sandwich or something like that. And I think at that point time something went off a light bulb went off and in essence that's pretty much how circle you got started was the lady who first lived in that house offered somebody who was a little bit down on their luck an opportunity to grab a meal. And here we are today.
Speaker 1:And that kind of became, I suspect, the kind of personal ministry of hers that just continued to grow, and it's in the same location is where she lived right, it's in the same location.
Speaker 2:Obviously there's been some additions to the building that we today couldn't do without in terms of the numbers that we serve right, and but it was her, her vision that, you know, started this thing called circle you help center right.
Speaker 1:I mean I like to go and, like you know, we had met a few days ago and, just because I wanted it, a little bit more about the facility and everything, because I hadn't really I'd been in, actually been in one part of it. But you know, you've had the addition of the warehouse and I didn't really haven't seen, you know how all the operation works until you took me through it. The, the warehouse is I what? How many square feet is that? It's like 70? 7200 square feet, okay, and so I mean there was nothing that didn't replace the warehouse, that just was additional space. Correct, correct?
Speaker 2:there were two properties that were where that warehouse currently sits you know, homes that needed to be torn down, and we went through I guess you know the city and the proper procedures cut through the red tape to purchase those two lots for us then to expand like we have with with the warehouse, and it's been a huge, huge benefit to us because we can, you know, store a lot of our items that are there, and then we may get into this later, but during the height of the pandemic, you know, we were getting about 27,000 pounds of food, you know, per month, and that was prior to the warehouse, and so we were having things still in the lunchroom area.
Speaker 2:We had a, an upstairs, three floors in that house that we were taking food upstairs and bringing it back downstairs as needed. We had a place out on the east side of town, kronan Toyota had a huge warehouse and back that was basically empty, that we ultimately moved all of our things out there and ran our food pantries basically preparing for our food pantries out there with all the boxes and things that we were doing, and then would bring them back into Circle U and with the addition of the facility, now we're able to do all of that in-house, just keep it all in one location you've got.
Speaker 1:You've got the original home, you've got, I guess, the original extension, which is really kind of where your kitchen and the where people come for their meals, correct, and then that kind of tunnels over to where the main warehouse is now, where you keep, you have freezers there and you have your inventory there, and then I don't. I guess we can talk about this part of it now when, so you you're on sat one Saturday every month, you do like a food pickup, correct, and it's kind of neat how you, how you set up that warehouse. You have a door on each end of it and so people, what time do you start serving or giving, distributing the food on?
Speaker 2:our pantry runs from two to about three, three thirty to put up on one.
Speaker 1:You know we run out of boxes, okay, and that's the third Saturday of each month so people, they come anticipating to go through the line and they actually pull their cars in yep and then pop the trunks and volunteers put the food in, and how do you track, I mean, who's coming or going? I mean I mean I'm sure that just out of people's privacy you don't really collect a lot of personal information, but I mean, how does that work? Is there coming through the line? All we?
Speaker 2:ask for is a name, an address, number of folks in your household. I mean, if there's, you may be picking up for a friend and we usually like to have that individual. Maybe they can't drive or they don't have transportation okay, with that particular person. To clarify, there are two different households. But if you know, my thoughts are, and the board and the folks that are closely affiliated with circle you.
Speaker 2:Our thoughts are that if you're hungry and you have a need for food, we're not going to ask questions, we're just going to get you your name, get your address and get you what you need to get by for the next couple three weeks, right?
Speaker 1:so people drive there, but they also just they should arrive on foot, oh yeah, and carry it back wherever they're going because you know a lot of the the folks here around north 13th, 14th, 12th street.
Speaker 2:There the weather here right lately has been excellent. They walk there and they take the box and go home.
Speaker 1:Do you? Do you find that most of your clients um at Circle U are really kind of just from the neighboring, from the neighborhood, or does it expand out greater than that? Do you even know?
Speaker 2:Well, no, I would say that 80% of of who we serve on our pantry days are from probably a six block area, um, closer to 90,. 95% of who we serve during our meal services Monday's, tuesdays and Saturdays are from right within that area. You know two or three blocks, um, you know you'd have to take a look at the addresses that we get from those, uh, that you know the drive in for the food pantry, um, but primarily it's a I would probably play six to eight block area that the majority of our clients come from.
Speaker 1:I mean, actually I'm pretty familiar with that neighborhood because I literally grew up only nine blocks from where, from where your, your center is, where Circle U is, uh, on North 22nd street, and also, um, during high school I worked on a bus route a church bus route that picked up kids and took them to the church on Sunday, and uh, so all those homes in that area were were the families that we took their kids to church sometimes adults would, but it was mainly just little kids were going to Sonny's School and church and uh so, uh, that that neighborhood is, for whatever reason, has really been kind of a needy area for a long time.
Speaker 1:Yes, the North end, yeah it really has and uh, I don't know what that speaks of our community, but uh, it's just, it's just been that way and uh, it's really great that Circle U has been there as a help to all those families in that area.
Speaker 2:And and they truly appreciate to have an opportunity or a place with which they can go, uh, to help offset some of us, particularly here of late, you know, with the prices of groceries and uh, you know the paycheck only goes so far. And it's not like, uh, the majority of our people aren't trying to find employment or aren't employed, it's just, you know, they may have, you know, household of four and are working for 14, 15 bucks an hour. And you know, you're trying to pay for, uh, your car payment, you're trying to pay your utility bills, you try to pay your phone bills. At the end of the month it's like, well, you've only got next number of dollars left. And to have a resource like Circle U for them to come to when those times are uh and they're in need, it's fulfilling from our end.
Speaker 1:You do your your weekly um service, you do the monthly. But Thanksgiving is kind of a big day for Circle U, or at least the biggest holiday where, where your services are most put to work, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:What's what? How does that? How's that different? Or what does that look like?
Speaker 2:Well, what's different is that, through volunteers who come into our facility and help pack a a box of of of yams, green beans Uh, you know, in this case it was hamsticks, pumpkin pie, roll and butter Uh, we, we had the clamshells and we probably had close to 60 volunteers come in this year, uh, along with folks who drive, and we delivered over I think it was approximately 842 meals on Thanksgiving day that normally we don't deliver because we just don't have the resources.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But on this particular day, uh, thanksgiving day, and it's been something that's been going on for quite some time folks in this city from around the area, uh, they show up Thanksgiving morning right around eight o'clock and next thing, you know, at nine, nine, 15, we're out the doors and by noon everybody has a Thanksgiving meal. And it's a. It's a huge undertaking, uh, but the the organization of it, and, again, it was all put in place long before I got there. It's just an amazing thing to see.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean it's. I think probably it's a kind of an annual kind of service tradition for a lot of people and a lot of families that this is something that they decide that they're going to do every year from the standpoint of the volunteers. Yeah, the volunteers? Yeah, Probably. Uh well, uh, how many years have you been the director?
Speaker 2:This is my third year, so you've probably just in three years you've probably seen the same lot of state people coming and they respond with emails leading up to hey, we're still playing on volunteering, we're still going to be doing the Thanksgiving meals. What do you need me to do? What can we do to help? And you don't ever want to turn volunteers away, obviously.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And um so the fact that they they're willing to get that. We had volunteers this year came and helped organize our shelves, our pantry shelves, until it was time to either take meals to deliver or begin. You know the rotation of putting the clamshells and the meals together just because they wanted to be there.
Speaker 1:So uh, we talked about your. You know your previous career. How did it come about that you decided that you're going to get involved and circle you and become executive director?
Speaker 2:I mean, I had been on the board probably for seven, maybe eight years Okay, prior to, uh, my taking the position as executive director, the previous executive director took another position and I was, you know, I was on the board, I had just really retired, if I can use that word, from, you know, officiating basketball and I just knew that I had to be doing something. I mean, I can only play golf in Indiana so many days out of year.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So, unfortunately, yeah, unfortunately, and so I, I approached the board, or made it known that if they were comfortable with hiring me or putting me in that position, I would, you know, relish the opportunity, would maybe, uh, would love to have the opportunity to do it. And they voted yay, and so here we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. That's all I think it's great that you're doing that. Back to the mission and what you do. How is Circle U funded? How do you get the money to do the things that you've got to do?
Speaker 2:A lot of it, the majority of it, uh, in terms of paying for the lights, the phones, uh, some of the food through private donations. Okay, um, we do a lot of, uh, fundraising. Uh, we have this uh, there's a program through the state of Indiana called the neighborhood assistance program and we had this year roughly $11,250 of state tax credits that we could sell. But for those folks and for us to get the full $11,250 that we had to sell $22,500 worth of donations for the last five, six, seven years. By the December 31st we have sold 100% of those state tax credits. So that's part of a funding that we get. The others come from corporate folks here in town, private citizens, and we just started a fundraiser here first part of the month. We have a private donor who has pledged $25,000, dollar for dollar up through the end of January, up to and including $25,000 for each month dollar we can raise. So if we can raise $15,000, this individual said he'll donate $15,000.
Speaker 1:But you're hoping to get the whole 25,000?
Speaker 2:Hoping to get the 25,000.
Speaker 1:Well, how does that?
Speaker 2:look, just this past week in fact. I just made a deposit today and we're right around $4,800. And the checks really just went out right after Thanksgiving. So we're already starting to see folks respond.
Speaker 1:So those following this podcast, they still have a chance to help make up that 20,000 that you can still match Absolutely, and they can send their donation to post office box 491 here in Richmond, 47375.
Speaker 2:And there's a 501C3. All those donations are tax deductible and as we're a nonprofit so I say it all time, mike, what we do at Circle U we're not the only food pantry in town, there are several others, but we're not really in competition with any of them we can't do what we do without the support of the folks here in Wayne County and it's this city is a very, very. This county, this area is a very, very giving place. And shout out to them because folks like us and others can't do what we do.
Speaker 1:Right. It does amaze me how many not for profits exist within our county, within, within Richmond, and the money that they need to receive to do, to operate what they do, and there's a lot. We have a lot and there's a lot that's done and for a community that isn't necessarily seen a lot of growth, but we but there are. There are great givers and compassionate people and, and so you know, you speak well of them and it speaks well of our community.
Speaker 2:We have a collaboration with communities and schools and there are 22 schools in Wayne County and of those 22 schools there's roughly, I'd say, 9,000 students maybe a little bit more and there's a statistic out, according to Feeding America, that just in this area of Wayne County, roughly 20% of those students of that 9,000 are food insecure. Food insecure for those who may not understand what that term or phrase means is that, as an example, you might go home today after school and you may not eat until you come back to school on Monday morning. So part of our collaboration with communities and schools is to seek funding through grants that we at Circle U and communities and schools with the collaborative effort can seek funding for, to purchase healthy, nutritious snacks for those students who've been identified by the 22 site coordinators as being food insecure or needy. Or in that case, some, some young person comes to school Monday and they're just hungry, right, give them a little snack to get them through until lunchtime.
Speaker 1:You know because I'm a community and schools mentor and I had no idea that they had. You had a, you know, a partnership with them and and there's food there that I see, Yep, and that's coming from your partnership.
Speaker 2:The snacks would be absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Who are some of your other partners in the community? We do a lot with the Boys and Girls.
Speaker 2:Club. But they're, they and and and of themselves are are wonderful people. I mean, what they do for the youth of this community is really unmatched. We get along and do some things with the veterans VFW post 1108. And every the fourth Tuesday of each month we have a food pantry specifically for the veterans, and the difference being there is that they run it. We will supply some of the dry goods and they in turn will finance us to pick up frozen meat items. But they ask for and rightfully so, you know an ID and I don't know probably anywhere from 90, 95 to 100, 110 boxes each month that through the VFW we will help support that cause.
Speaker 1:So we're, but that's not done at your location, or is it?
Speaker 2:No, it's not, it's at the V off the VA clinic there off of North J. Okay.
Speaker 1:Behind the VA clinic, but that's another partnership that you have. So what are some of? We've talked about how generous the community is, but I would I don't want to make too many assumptions, but I would assume that one of the one of your potential struggles or opportunities is is is financing, getting enough money to do the operation Correct? So that's one of it. Is there any other, anything else that presents that? You have Anything else that presents kind of a challenge to the organization right now that would be good for people to know about?
Speaker 2:The you hit on it. Our, our biggest issue is and we understand that we can't be everything to everyone Sure Um, finances, monetary donations, things that we can do on our on our own to go out and purchase necessary food items to offset. I think I mentioned earlier that during the high of the pandemic we were getting 27,000 pounds of food a month. Just this past month we've got a little over 2000. Well, that's over a 90% drop and the pandemic itself was a pandemic, obviously, but food insecurity in and of itself is a pandemic and that issue here, as amongst other places throughout the country, is growing.
Speaker 2:So you get a 90% drop in what you were being given through Gleaners Food Bank and then an increase of roughly 20% or more in what you're having to serve. We got to figure out a way to make up that shortage. And if you've, like I've said, if you've seen the prices in the grocery store, it's almost impossible. We got a great donation from Dot Foods here not too long ago Roughly $5,000, where we were able to fill out a list of things that we would want to help through our food distribution. If it weren't for something like that as a community partner from them, we'd have to put $60,000 in our budget just to feed about 100 people, because that's about what $5,000 goes, that's about how far it goes.
Speaker 1:And you don't really have a lot of employees I mean it's just volunteers and then the resources that you need to gain to feed people Right.
Speaker 2:There's three employees, yeah, other than myself. Now, like I said, I've got this title of executive director, but there are six women who have been there almost from day one, who have over 120 years of volunteer experience. So I just do what they tell me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm sure it's a wise. It's wise of your part. Don't say that too loudly. So currently, in the future, I mean facility-wise, do you think you're in pretty good shape right now? I mean, do we have it? Is that? What are some of the needs moving forward there, you think?
Speaker 2:We are in probably as good a shape as we could possibly be in all things considered, you know, with the addition of the warehouse. As far as you know needs and wants and those type things, again, it just boils down to the more we can get in terms of food products dry goods in particular that we can hand out, the better. We've had schools that you know have done, you know, food drives. We've had local businesses that do food drives and, like you said in your introduction and introductory remarks, this is a time of year where a lot of that gets done and we're just blessed to have, you know, that kind of support because every little bit helps.
Speaker 2:I mean, you see on Fox 59 News all the time about the food banks, cleaners and Midwest food and that $5 will feed a family of four for, you know, two weeks or whatever the case may be. Well, a lot of what they do at cleaners and Midwest that's, who supplies or helps supply us with the products that we need Cleaners is once a month drop and you know what they do is a food bank. The service bank is 20, 22, 23 counties about the state of Indiana and people will say, well, how come the shortage? You know from the pandemic. Well, during the pandemic the federal government was pushing things out to help with the issue of hunger and food and the pandemic itself. Well, as the country got a hold of the pandemic, well then the federal government kind of pulled back on what they were forcing out. So the cleaners they get, so they get a thousand pounds and they've got 22 counties. There's only so much that they can distribute equally to the you know, food pantries throughout the state.
Speaker 1:So financial contributions are great because that allows you to use those funds to get exactly what you need. Definitely, if people have time they want to serve, they contact Circle U. You'll do everything you can to kind of plug them in where they can help the organization. And then it comes to food donations and although I'm sure you appreciate any kind of donation that is made, there's probably some donations that are better received than others. Is that fair to say?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. We have a part of the food rescue program here locally with Reed Hospital, kroger, walmart, needlers, starbucks. Those places, particularly Reed, will take food that they serve through the week for you know their patients, and then what they have left over they have frozen and we pick up once a week to then use, you know, for our own hot meal service. Places like Walmart and Kroger donate dry good items, frozen meat items, pastries, starbucks bagels, cake pops. I mean it's a great thing.
Speaker 1:So what's the best kind of donations that you can give? Someone says, hey, I'd really like to donate, but what should I give them? You know what are the most efficient types of food donations that you could receive if just the general public's trying to help out Can goods, box goods, dry goods, as they're called, it's hard to take, meat items and that type thing.
Speaker 2:We really don't want to do that, even though you know we're getting them from you, say like Walmart and you know Kroger and that type thing. But those things are, they're dated, you know what you're getting when they're past a due date and that type thing. There are certain things that you have to do, obviously from a standpoint of the best used by date. Milk, dairy products we don't get into because it's I mean, we do through cleaners, but as far as donations and that type thing, we tend to shy away from.
Speaker 1:Well, I just want to cover that because if you know, if people want to help us, sometimes you know we want to direct them, how they can help the most you know and you don't want to be, you know, picky about those kind of things, but it is important that, especially when we're talking about food items, I just thought it was important for the public to understand, you know.
Speaker 2:Bottled water, gatorade it's about anything that anybody would be thinking would be helpful to someone who might be hungry, other than a frozen food item. Sure, we're good.
Speaker 1:Great. Anything else that you want to share?
Speaker 2:Thank you for the opportunity for us to come here and, you know, tell our story.
Speaker 1:Well, you're a real trooper. I know that it hasn't shown, but I know you're just a little bit under the weather today, so I do appreciate you coming and doing this. So so I hope that, after hearing about Circle U today, that our followers are encouraged to support them by donating, volunteering or even both, and if you go to circleUorg, there is a link giving you several options to help and that's Circle the Letter U. So, circleuorg, kyle, thank you for joining us on the hub and I really thank you for the work you're doing in our community and Circle U as a whole, mike thank you, and don't forget, you give me three shots aside.
Speaker 2:I'm starting in March.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're talking about golf. Hey, thanks to Manpower, our sponsor, we've been in the community since 1966 and invested community partner helping companies and employment seekers when. So, for more information on Manpower, you can go to mprichmancom. That's mprichmancom, thank you.