The 3W Podcast
From the people that bring you 3W Magazine, welcome to the 3W Podcast! We aim to serve our community by promoting awareness of Northwest Arkansas’ thriving philanthropic movement; To provide a guide of dates to help coordinate events so every nonprofit gets the coverage they need and deserve; To give financially to local charities each year.
The 3W Podcast
The 3W Podcast: Julie Damer - Part 1
Every child deserves a nutritious breakfast they can prepare themselves. That's the driving force behind the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank's innovative Summer Cereal Drive, running throughout June 2025.
When Julie Damer from the NWA Food Bank joined Kasie Yokley on The 3W Podcast, she revealed how this simple concept is already transforming childhood hunger relief across Benton, Washington, Carroll and Madison counties. The initiative focuses on collecting shelf-stable cereal - an affordable, accessible food option that empowers children to feed themselves with minimal supervision during summer months when school meals aren't available.
What makes this initiative particularly impactful is its simplicity and accessibility. Community members can donate cereal at six locations including Allen's Food Market in Bella Vista, Akin's Natural Foods in Rogers, Harps Food Store locations in Fayetteville, Siloam Springs and Gentry, and the 10Box Cost Plus in Springdale. Those unable to donate physical items can contribute financially through the NWA Food Bank's website, where each dollar provides up to 3.5 meals through their purchasing power.
Want to help feed children in your community? Find donation locations, scan the QR code on the NWA Food Bank's website to contribute, or learn more about the NWA Food Bank's impact at nwafoodbank.org. Together, we can ensure no child goes hungry this summer.
Hey everybody, welcome to the 3W podcast. I'm your host, Kasie Yokley, like usual, but I have a great friend here with me today, Julie Damer with the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. So, Julie, welcome. Thank you so much, I'm so excited to have you. Thank you, you, it's june. She's here for a reason, because we're just going to jump right in. Part two is going to be all about the northwest arkansas food bank and all the great that they do in Benton and Washington county and several other counties, as well, counties, four counties yes, so we're going to dive into all that in part two, but part one is all about something super cool happening this month, right now, that everybody can participate in.
Speaker 2:So ready, ready, oh it is called 2025 Cereal Drive Cereal Drive.
Speaker 1:I know it's a cereal drive, I've written it down.
Speaker 2:Oh the summer cereal drive, I know how to find it.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, a fun name. June 1st through the 30th it is, and we just had a sort of like public kickoff for it?
Speaker 2:We did. We had a breakfast invite, only that we invited all of our participating vendors to. It was just kind of to give them an overview about what we're expecting, how they can participate and give some general information on the food bank.
Speaker 1:So I thought it was so great. I learned a lot at that event. Because it's brand new, it is, but it's obvious. It's brand new, it is, but it's obvious, it's very obvious. It's kind of funny that we haven't kicked this off yet before, because cereal is so easily accessible and it doesn't go bad.
Speaker 2:It's like a canned food right, but it's cereal, right, and we actually stole this idea from a food bank partner of ours Deloitte Food Bank hey, that's a form of flowery and I'm giving them full credit for it. Ours, deloitte Rock Food Bank hey, that's Oklahoma Flowery and then giving them full credit for it. Yes, yes, and they've done it for several years and each year they have seen an increase in donations and support and, as you said, cereal is a shelf-stable item and we were trying to think of things that we could do for the summer here for children in the area that they could actually fix themselves so obvious.
Speaker 2:I mean you need milk, a bowl and a spoon. Yes, so the cereals where we came up with and, as you said, it's very affordable. You know, a box can be just under $5. Yeah, and there's several servings. So we thought this would be a good way to kind of test it out. June 1st through the 30th is our goal dates to have the drive. We have several vendors, as you know, that are already participating and we're already off to a great start. We have over 36,000 units already.
Speaker 1:I was going to say 32. So it's obviously gone up since the kickoff, but 36,000 units and a unit I learned last week is not necessarily a box- it's not.
Speaker 2:It can be a box, it can be a carton, it can be um a bag.
Speaker 1:yeah, it can be anything giant post cereal bags. Now, disclaimer post is not my client, but general mills is. And uh, but wk kello, yes, or kellogg's, or in kello nova, yes, I mean. And then we had um, I had to put my glasses on because I cannot. Nature's, nature's Path and Nature's Night Honey. Yes, I get the two flipped around, unfortunately. But yeah, nature's Path, organic Cereals and Nature Nate's Honey, yes, yes, so great. So I'm like I mean 36,000.
Speaker 2:That's literally what you have in the warehouse at the moment, that is stuff, that that's our items that the vendors have already sent to us. That's not counting any donations. That doesn't count the community yet. That does not count it at all. So that's why we're here, right.
Speaker 1:It's to talk about what you all can do in the community and we have KMWA is doing a live remote. I feel like really soon.
Speaker 2:Yes, or, depending on when this airs, it could, could have already happened. I'm not sure. We'll just go with the flow. At a Walmart, I think, on Pleasant Grove it is. It's actually Friday, june the 20th. They'll start at 6am and go to 6pm. They're going to have live broadcast out there. So morning, afternoon and evening anchors will be out there doing live on air broadcast with some of our vendor partners, as well as some of our staff, and the community is invited to stop by Right go in buy a cereal, drop it in the box, exactly.
Speaker 2:We also make it super easy, too, that if you can't be out there or visit one of the six locations across the four counties that we serve and we do have donation bins in those stores that there's a QR code on our website, wwwnwafoodbankorg, and they can scan that QR code and donate to the cereal drive A dollar. We can provide up to 3.5 meals, so you can see we can stretch that dollar right away. So that's a lot of cereal.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of cereal and I'm sure if somebody buys cereal just randomly they could stop by your new facility. They absolutely can. I think a year old now.
Speaker 2:It's a year old in June. It's almost a year old to the date today. Yeah, now it's a year old in.
Speaker 1:June. It's almost a year old to the date today. Yeah, okay, I was like it's somewhere around there, yes, which is exciting. And Lowell, you all should definitely check it out because it is next level amazing and I'm sure if you stop in, you all will give a tour Gladly.
Speaker 2:It looks impressive, but we built it large enough to serve the four counties that we serve for the next 25 years. And although it does look impressive, there are no bells and whistles. It is totally functional. It is there to serve a purpose and I think we've done a really good job with that.
Speaker 1:You have done an amazing job. Like I'm excited for the day y'all go out of business because nobody will be food insecure. Exactly, I would love to be unemployed. Yes, yes, exactly. And we're going to circle back to all that in part two, and I also want to talk about the bank aspect with you, don't let me forget. Okay, but where are these locations? Where are the six locations?
Speaker 2:We actually have six locations and I have to get my cheat sheet out here. We have them at various locations across the area Allen's Food in Bella Vista. We have Aiken's Natural Food on Walnut in Rogers, Close to downtown Rogers. There are three HARP locations Fayetteville, Siloam and Gentry. We are in the Tin Box in Springdale. So we're everywhere, You're covering everywhere, we're a little bit of everywhere, and we did that purposely to kind of go outside our normal four city area although we do have boxes in there just to let people outside of the normal area, you know, know what's going on in community involvement and we want everybody to get involved, because these boxes of cereal will not only go to Rogers, bentonville, springdale and Fayetteville, the big four, they'll go to, you know, madison County.
Speaker 2:they're going to go everywhere. In Carroll County they're going to Washington County and Benton County. So there's a lot of little towns that we serve Greenwood, green Forest and Prairie Grove, huntsville. That don't always get a lot of attention but we're in those areas and this product will go to those children as well, so how is it going to get out there?
Speaker 1:So, june 30th yes, june 30th.
Speaker 2:Our date is June 1st through the 30th. After June 30th, all of the product will be in the warehouse.
Speaker 1:But you can still donate cereal after June 30th. Absolutely, I'll also say that and money yes, and money and money yes, because a dollar we stretch the dollar.
Speaker 2:We do. We do so. Once everything is in the warehouse, we put it into inventory and we have over 110 agency partners in the areas that we serve and they actually place orders on our website to get products. So every item will be on that. They can go in and pick how many boxes of this they want, how many bags of this they want. Those will be delivered to those agency partners and then clients in that area can go to those agency partners and pick it up. So wonderful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because this is feeding our kids. It is Like all of our kids in the four-county area it is and I know we've touched on it a million times because cereal is so accessible. And I will shout out General Mills, because I do buy those cereals. Yes, because they are a partner of ours, but they just launched this past spring. I feel like protein cereals and I mean, how great is that? Because I love sugar cereal. Don't get me wrong. We love Cinnamon Toast Crunch in our house, but I can buy my oldest son the protein Cheerios and I'm sure those are going to get donated, if they haven't already, by all the community, and I'm sure those are going to get donated, if they haven't already, by all the community. And so kids are not only getting breakfast or a snack whichever one they want to use it for, that they can make themselves but they're getting a source of protein as well. They are it's shelf-stable.
Speaker 2:And something else, too that people might not think of when you think of breakfast are protein shakes. A lot of families you know they're on a tight budget we buy those Protein shakes are quite expensive, so we've got some of those donated and we're hoping to have more donated so kids that don't normally get to have something like that for breakfast or lunch or snack will have that opportunity to have that as well.
Speaker 1:I love that idea. Maybe we should do a separate protein drive, shell stable protein drive. I don't know what that looks like. Yes, I love me some protein. It's all the rage right now. It's like a real struggle to get it all in. Yes, but yes, I would love that. So how long so? It just launched and we borrowed the idea from Litter-Op. Yes, what was your lead time? When did you all finally decide to pull the trigger and we were going to make this happen in 2025?
Speaker 2:It was about two months ago. It's that quick it is. We turned this around quite quickly. Okay, we had the idea we were trying to think of something new to do during the summer months, especially since there's a lot of federal cuts coming and some things have already shown in the area of economy. So we're trying to think of something that we could do this year. That would be something that would be easily for us to do and get it out in the community and get it done this year. So that's where the idea and concept kind of came. Oh, that was fast turnkey it was, and we have some great vendor partners that helped us with the bins.
Speaker 2:Uh shout out to post net and rogers, I love that. And, rogers, yes, david and his team do a great job. They turn those around for us really quick and our team delivered them to the stores, got them out there, got the signs on there and they've been there since the first of June, when did you call your vendor partners Because that's a fast activation on their end.
Speaker 1:They got it, given exactly budgets per se, donation budgets but you have 36,000 currently and you just told them two months ago.
Speaker 2:Yes, and we're lucky that we live in such a community that is so giving, and we have great vendor partners, and when the members of our development team reached out to these people and told them what we're doing, they all jumped on board, so it was an easy yes for them it's, it's great for us, it's great for the community, it's great for the vendor too. I mean, it's exposure, and we'll publicize the heck out of them, anybody that donates to us. We want to give them a thank you and a public shout out.
Speaker 1:Same.
Speaker 2:That's how we are at 3W.
Speaker 1:I don't care about exclusivity, it's just the more exposure someone can get, the better everyone's going to be, and that's one thing that we talked about.
Speaker 2:We had the question do we want this sponsored by such and such? We don't want it sponsored by somebody, because we wanted everybody to come together and collaborate as a group of vendors that supply cereal and, like I said, they all jumped on board. It's a collaborative effort to get this going. I love that.
Speaker 1:A giant hug for the summer. Yeah, I do. And then we've got Walmart's involvement. We do. We have two co-chairs per se.
Speaker 2:We do Tasha Tandy on the Walmart side and Amy LeGrone on the Sam's Club side Correct, and they were both there at our kickoff breakfast and took time out of their day to come and speak to the crowd and give their support, and Walmart and Sam's will be involved somehow as well.
Speaker 1:I love this. So are they drop-off locations yet at Walmart?
Speaker 2:Walmart will not be a drop-off location. The only location will be the Pleasant Grove this Friday, which is the 20th, 6 to 6, and will be outside the store. All of the other locations that I mentioned have been inside the store for those 30 days From Post-it.
Speaker 1:Correct. More information, more, more, more. What else does the community need to know about this? I just love it, because cereal I can't say it enough it's so excessive. Yeah, so I love it.
Speaker 2:We can't wait to get the grand total. I have a feeling that it's going to be quite large and hopefully exceed our expectations.
Speaker 1:Well, I heard the expectations were so low. They were Sadly they were, but not in a negative way only because it was a first-year situation that y'all didn't know how to forecast. And so I heard it's like already like double it is, or something, what y'all forecast.
Speaker 2:We were hopeful for a number. When we surpassed that number, we were excited. And then, when we finally got the count, even before the kickoff breakfast, we were pleasantly surprised. I love it how much was already donated.
Speaker 1:So great, it's so amazing, and we still have two weeks left. We do. I love it. Okay, well, that's gonna wrap up part one, because we definitely just wanted to drill you all in on the summer cereal drive. So, julie, thank you. Thank you so much. Please stick around for part two. I hope you all will join us for part two, but until next time, thank you so much and keep inspiring a culture of giving. Bye, bye.