Welcome to Feed Our Region.

PBS Western Reserve partnered with four local food banks to highlight the impact they make in our community.

During this program, we'll ask you to give to this station, and when you do, we will donate meals to these food banks in your name.

Just one gift doubles your impact.

I'm sure you're aware of the current issues facing food banks, and maybe you've wondered what you can do to help.

Now's your chance.

We'll show you the work of the Mercer County Food Bank in Pennsylvania, Wooster Hope Center, The Akron Canton Regional Food Bank, and the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley.

These food banks represent the work of many across our viewing area.

- So here today is Ready Set Orange.

It is 12 hours of packing power, and we're inviting our community in to help us prepare for what is historically our busiest season.

I can tell you in the months of like September, October, November and December especially, volunteerism kind of, you know, trickles down some.

So being able to host 12 hours of packing power is truly going to help us prepare for what our neighbors need.

We're seeing the numbers of neighbors turning to the food bank for assistance grow exponentially.

So being able to host something like this and bring in our organizations, our businesses, our community into what we do here is huge especially for such a small food bank like ours.

- Well, today we’re having our Wooster Hope Center Food Pantry.

And this is something that we do every week, actually 50 weeks out of the year.

And we do three times a week, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

And we do this with 100% volunteer.

I'm the director and I'm a volunteer director.

And so what that means to everybody is that anytime anybody gives any money to the Wooster Hope Center, the money goes directly back into the needs here.

Not paying somebody to do the job.

- So the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank is the source of emergency food for more than 600 pantries, meal sites, shelters, programs that serve kids, older adults.

We have a lot of different kinds of programs that are serving neighborhoods across our eight county service area.

The food bank is sourcing hundreds of thousands of pounds of food weekly, and so there's no way that a pantry typically can store all of that food on their own.

We have 600 food programs that are helping us get the food into the community.

But this is a very large scale operation.

- Our reason for being is that we provide food to our 160 pantries, so they can go back to their location and help the people in their community.

We have the food.

They need the food.

The people that are hungry need the food and the flow works very, very well.

- The mission is so no one goes hungry is keeping it simple.

Basically, we are here to provide food for anyone that is in need, as well as to give advocacy about it.

It's important for people to learn about us.

I think when people see what we're about and what all goes into what we do, they would be amazed.

- Hi, I'm Natalie Pillsbury, President and CEO of PBS Western Reserve, and I'm joined by Lindsay Kuntzman, our Chief Development Officer.

We are so excited to be here with you right now presenting Feed Our Region, a special program produced by PBS Western Reserve.

All about the impact of food banks across Northeast Ohio.

We are so excited to share with you the stories of these organizations and the work they do to help people who are suffering from food insecurity throughout our region.

So, we'll get back to the show shortly, but right now we're here to talk about a very special initiative that we have to go along with this program.

Lindsay can share a little bit more about how that works.

- Yes.

So right now, as you're watching this show, we have a goal to give 20,000 meals back to our community.

And here's how we're going to do this.

When you make a donation to PBS Western Reserve, you can select a thank you gift of meals.

So instead of selecting your traditional mugs and tote bags, you can select meals.

And we will donate those in your honor to the food banks featured in this special program, Feed our Region.

This deep dive into the organizations making a difference in our community is the type of programing you only can find on public media and PBS Westerm Reserve in particular.

So we are asking you to support this type of local programing with your donation, and we will say thank you by giving meals in your honor to the food banks featured.

Again, our goal is to give away 20,000 meals.

We can make that goal when everyone watching steps up with a donation.

You can call the number on your screen or visit our website right now.

- That's right, it's quick and easy to make that contribution on our website, PBSWesternReserve.org/donate.

When you make that contribution, let's say you select a gift of $240.

Well, that is going to mean that 80 meals will be donated as your thank you gift, in your honor to our food bank partners.

So not only are you supporting PBS Western Reserve and the important work that we do in the community, you will also be supporting food banks and people who are suffering from food insecurity.

So it's a great time to give, a great reason to give right now during this special presentation of Feed our Region.

You know, we need to get to that 20,000 meal goal and we know that we can get there with your support.

So again, how it works is let's say you make a contribution of $120.

That means that 40 meals will be donated to our food bank partners in your honor.

Get in on this and help us reach our goal of 20,000 meals.

Call the number on your screen or give online.

- Our mission is to provide supplemental food to those in need and to provide advocacy and awareness about hunger in Mercer County.

And we have nearly 16,000 food insecure residents within our county lines.

Of that 16,000, 4,600 of them are children.

And food insecurity basically means that you don't always know where your next meal will come from.

So we are a 501-c-3 nonprofit, so we operate on grants and in public donations.

Donations are incredibly important, especially this year.

Food banks faced a lot of cuts from the federal government.

Ours was no exception to that.

We lost over 400,000 pounds of food through the USDA, bonus food program.

And we're only behind in our distribution about 200,000 pounds of food, which just speaks to the generosity of this community to step up when we need them.

- And I will tell you, whenever we see federal cuts or, you know, things aren't being signed, it does affect us at the food bank level, and it affects USDA and TEFAP commodities.

We're really hoping to see, you know, that food come back to the food bank at some time.

We hear it is coming.

And honestly, the sooner the better.

Because whenevr that food is not here, it's less food going out to our neighbors in need.

- So we offer a lot of direct distribution programs.

The newest one we've implemented this year is the School Pantry, that replaces the Backpack Food Program model within the schools.

- With the backpack program, we were only able to reach certain children certain ages.

And it depended on the funding that was available for each school, how many children we were able to reach.

With the school pantry program, we're able to reach all ages, all grades, and it's a little bit more private for the children where they're able to go and they've got a separate pantry room.

They can go in after school, put a few items in their backpack.

Another plus to that is that it's choice pantry, where they're able to go and choose the foods they actually like, as opposed to where we were bagging food for the Backpack Program.

And you hope you're giving them something they're going to enjoy.

With this, they can actually do that.

- We also operate Myron’s Meall Mobile during the summer months when kids are home from school.

It's our retrofitted school bus, and we travel to low income neighborhoods five days a week throughout the ten week summer period.

Additionally, we have a military share program where we're serving over 600 veterans and their families it’s a specific distribution just for veterans, and we host those at local VFW’s and amories where the veterans are already going and feel safe and comfortable.

Our biggest program that we're operating right now is called Mobile Pantry.

And essentially we pack up our trucks and we go out to specific locations that are located usually in rural areas and food deserts, where there's a high need for food insecurity.

- The need right now is huge.

On average, we’re serving 13,313 neighbors.

But I can tell you, just about a month ago we served over 14,000 neighbors.

So the need is growing.

Our neighbors, our seniors, their children, their veterans, they're your family.

They're your neighbors.

And they simply just aren't making enough anymore.

And they're having to make impossible choices.

And that is why we exist.

We are not a handout, we are a hand up.

- Just like you and me.

Everybody's, you know, one car repair away or one emergency away from needing help.

And if you've never needed the food banks help, you may not understand fully the whole scope of what we and our agencies do.

Today is our second annual Ready Set Go Orange packathon and we are packing for 12 hours straight to get ourselves ready for the winter months when the need in our community for food rises.

- Obviously there's a great need during the holiday season.

We've got a lot of folks in need here in Mercer County.

We really depend on the public.

We really do.

We depend on the stores.

We depend on the donations and neighbors in the area.

But during the holidays are our busiest time.

And then coming into January, February is a very important time too, because people tend to think of us more during the holidays.

Whereas January, February, they kind of go about their normal business and that's when we have to really start moving to try to bring stuff in.

So we try to make sure that everything we have is going to some sort of use.

We don't want to waste anything that we don't have to.

All the reclamation food that comes in, we have to sort through, we check for dates, we check for damages, and anything that we're not able to use goes to the digester up the road here, where they turn that into electricity.

Most of the produce we're able to use because we're bringing in fresh, but we do have some things that come from different stores that if we're not able to get that distributed in time, we can send it out to pig and cattle farmers and people like that.

- Being able to host 12 hours of packing power is truly going to help us prepare for what our neighbors need.

And we're seeing the numbers of neighbors turning to the food bank for assistance grow exponentially.

So being able to host something like this and bring in our organizations, our businesses, our community into what we do here is huge especially for such a small food bank like ours.

- We're packing produce today.

We're packing dry boxes.

We're sorting items that are brought in.

We also have food drives going on where we've got people outside set up, bringing in food, and then we'll sort and pack that as it comes in.

- We have volunteers today.

We have over 200 joining us for this specific event today and they come from all over the county.

We have just individuals who want to join our mission.

We have groups from organizations, local businesses, anybody and anyone resident in Mercer County who wanted to come out today to join in was welcome.

Just trying to bring the entire community together, because essentially, at the end of the day, this is a community’s food bank and we're here to serve our community.

- Our volunteers are the heart of what we do.

If we didn't have volunteers, there's no way we could do what we do here at Mercer County Food Bank.

Yeah, we have a lot of the people who are our recipients actually come in as volunteers, because they're kind of touched by the help that they've received.

So they want to actually turn that around and they want to be able to help somebody else.

And yeah, that just makes you feel good when you see that.

And one of the other highlights, we have a lot of the students from local schools that come in.

And yeah, it’s really great when you see these younger kids that want to come in, they want to help their community.

The sense of pride that they take out of that is just phenomenal and it's nice to see.

- It truly takes a community to feed the community.

So when we bring in our mascots, these are our local schools.

It starts with our youth.

If our youth don't know what our community needs, they are our future.

How do we continue without our youth?

We started this as a way to raise awareness because if you've never needed our services, you don't know what the food bank does.

You might not even know where we're located.

So being able to bring in organizations and businesses to see what we do and how we operate.

Not only is it raising advocacy and making them advocates for the work that we do, but it's also bringing in donations because now they're they're seeing what we do, and they're hearing about the neighbors who need us.

They're saying, how can we be of help?

So this means hopefully more funds being driven into the food banks that we can get more food onto the empty plates of our neighbors who need it.

So right now you're in the food banks warehouse.

It's probably smaller than what you would normally see at a typical food bank, but we are the smallest food bank in the Feeding America network.

We hold that title, but I like to say we are small, but we are mighty.

We last year distributed 3.1 million pounds of food to this one small food bank, and we are one county food bank.

But you know what?

What's unique about us is that we know our community.

We know our neighbors.

We know our businesses.

We know our organizations.

And that's probably not something that all food banks can say.

So right now you're in our warehouse and this is our home.

This is how we feed our neighbors.

- People can volunteer, donate, host a food drive.

There are so many ways that people can get involved.

Even if you do share one fact about what the food bank does, it helps get our mission out there to educate more people on the needs that we have here in our community.

If you want to get involved, you can give the foodbank a call (724) 981-0353 or check us out on our website, www.mercercountybank.org and go right to give help.

There's a link there.

Fill out the volunteer application and we can have you in here as early as the next day.

- Hello, I'm Natalie Pillsbury, President and CEO of PBS Western Reserve, and I'm here with Linday Kuntzman, our Chief Development Officer.

We're taking a break from this incredible program, Feed Our Region for just one moment to talk to you about supporting PBS Western Reserve and our food bank partners.

This program was developed by our team at PBS Western Reserve to highlight the important work of our food banks throughout the region.

They are truly doing so much to help people who are suffering from food insecurity, to make sure that they can stay healthy and fed and well to live their best lives.

And, you know, we felt it was important to bring you the stories of these organizations, the challenges they face, and to build awareness in our community.

And it's so important that programs like this exist and that's why public media is here for our community.

We're asking you to step up and make a contribution to PBS Western Reserve right now.

And your contribution will not only support PBS Western Reserve, it will also help our food bank partners.

And Lindsay will explain a little bit more about how this works.

- Yes.

So right now we have this incredible opportunity.

When you make a donation, you will have the option to select a thank you gift of meals.

So instead of your traditional tote bags, DVDs, books, you will be given meals as a thank you gift, which we will then donate in your honor to these food banks that are featured in Feed Our Region.

This means when you donate to PBS Western Reserve, you're really going to have double the impact.

Just one gift, but you're supporting this type of programing on PBS Western Reserve and you'll be providing meals to those who are food insecure in our region.

For example, if you were to give a donation of $60 right now, that will provide 20 meals to those in need.

Say you can double that and do $120, that's going to provide 40 meals.

If you give $240, that's 80 meals.

If you're able to make a $360 donation to support PBS Western Reserve, that becomes a thank you gift of 120 meals.

All together, we are trying to donate 20,000 meals back to our region.

So every contribution is going to help get us a little bit closer to that goal.

It's so important that you step up with a donation right now.

Not only are so many people food insecure in our region, but here at PBS Western Reserve, we have a budget gap that we need to fill of $600,000.

We have lost funding due to the recession of federal funding from the government and the state of Ohio has also cut our funding.

That means we are looking to everyone in the community to step up and help support PBS Western Reserve with a donation.

That is what allows us to create content like feed our region.

And when you make that donation, you're going be given a thank you gift of meal so you can feel extra good that during this season of giving, you're having double the impact helping PBS Western Reserve and helping these food bank partners.

We need you to call the number on your screen right now or visit our websites.

- Yes, it is so important that everyone watching right now make the choice to contribute in support of this, of our Feed Our Region show and our goal of reaching 20,000 meals that we will be contributing back to our food bank partners across the region.

The work that they do in the community is so valuable and important.

And, you know, the work that PBS Western Reserve does for our community, telling our community stories, providing educational resources and accessible programing for free to everyone in our region is also an extremely valuable.

If you're watching right now, we're sure that you're aware of the value of PBS Western Reserve.

So you by making a contribution to PBS Western Reserve right now, you're supporting two highly valuable community institutions that provide services for free to those in need in our community.

Make that contribution to PBS Western Reserve.

You know, as Lindsay said at the maybe the $120 level, that's going to result in a thank you gift of meals that will go back to our food bank partners and help to feed people during this season of giving.

Don't wait, step up and make your contribution right now.

Call the number on your screen or you can easily give online to make that contribution.

- Yes.

You know Natalie, here at PBS Western Reserve, we have so much local content.

We have shows like this one, Feed Our Region.

We have the World According to Polka, By Nature's Design.

We have our digital series Local Focus, where we do this deep dive into the people, places, events happening in our region.

Shows like this are what you count on and expect from PBS Western Reserve.

And we can only make them possible with your support.

So please step up with a donation right now.

We need everyone to help us reach this goal that we have of providing 20,000 meals to those in need in our region.

PBS Western Reserve is a part of this community and we are counting on the community to not only support us, but help those neighbors in need.

If you make a donation right now of $60, that will become a thank you gift of meals.

We will get 20 meals to be exact with that donation of $60.

And you can feel good knowing that you are supporting PBS Western Reserve.

We are counting on everyone because not only are you going to help neighbors in need right now, but you are going to be keeping PBS Western Reserve strong for the future.

We are looking to fill a budget gap of $600,000 right now.

We have made tremendous progress.

I think we're already over 35% of our goal to filling that budget gap, but that means we still have a ways to go.

We need you to step up right now.

And you will feel extra good because it is going to have double the impact.

Not only are you making content like this available for PBS Western Reserve and the community, but you are supporting those neighbors in need because we will say thank you with a gift of meals.

Please call the number on your screen or visit the website right now and make that contribution.

- Yes, you know, we have that goal of 20,000 meals.

You know, it sounds like a lot, but if everyone who's watching right now makes the choice to contribute to PBS Western Reserve, we know we can get there and then we'll be providing that 20,000 meals back to people in our communities who are you know, suffering from food insecurity.

It's so important that you make the choice to contribute to PBS Western Reserve right now.

Our organization is a nonprofit public media organization.

We rely on support from our community, which is more important than ever because our federal funding was cut and our state funding was reduced.

So we have a gap in our budget that we are working extremely hard to fill.

We're so appreciative of to everyone who has contributed so far.

But we still have a ways to go and you can help us get there by contributing right now during Feed Our Region.

We hope you're enjoying this programing where you're learning about the work of our food banks and organizations in our community that are helping to provide food and vital resources to those in need.

So please say thank you by giving us a call.

You can use the number on your screen or going online to make a contribution.

Your thank you gift will be meals.

- You know, maybe Natalie, you've been watching for a while and you haven't made a donation.

Or maybe it's been a quite a while since you've donated.

This is the perfect time, because when you make that donation, you're going to feel extra good knowing you're supporting PBS Western Reserve and making meals possible for those in the region.

If you're able to, you can join us at the producer circle level with a $1,200 donation.

At that level, you are going to have a significant impact not only on PBS Western Reserve, but you're going to make 400 meals possible.

That is going to get us so close to that 20,000 goal of donating that many meals back to our food bank partners.

So that's again at the $1,200 level, we will say thank you with 400 meals.

And again, you'll feel so good knowing that you're making content possible on PBS Western Reserve.

We need everyone to step up, help us help our food banks in the region.

Call the number on your screen or visit that website right now.

- Yeah, on the website you can take a look at all the different giving levels and sort of take a look at how many meals your gift will be providing to our food bank partners.

But, you know, now is the time to make this contribution.

Support PBS Western Reserve and help make meals possible for those in need in our community.

Today we are having our Wooster Hope Center Food Pantry and this is something that we do every week actually, 50 weeks out of the year.

And we do three times a week, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

And we do this with 100% volunteer.

So right now they are bagging up food.

So that way when we open, the people coming in, we have what we call Cart People.

And the Cart People are volunteers that go around and grab the food, will take them out to their car, load their car up for them and bless them and just wish them a good day.

So we serve all of Wayne County, and each week we actually have at least one person from every zipcode get food from us in Wayne County.

Of course we get a lot from Worcester, Orrville, Shreve area, kind of the closer areas to us.

But we also get people coming down from Rittman, West Salem.

We've even gotten part of Doylestown area.

I'm actually one of the six that first started the Wooster Hope Center back in 2011.

There were six of us sitting around a round table and we came up with an idea for a hygiene pantry.

It started out with a very small hygiene pantry, but then it grew into a food pantry, hygiene pantry, and then the food pantry took off until now, we're in a 10,000 square foot building.

I call it a food warehouse.

Last year we went through 2.2 million pounds of food here.

We've been at this location since 2018.

We have moved into three different locations and each time we've grown.

And so that stands out.

The amount of growth in 14 years.

I remember the very first person we serve food to.

And I remember where we would have weeks of 20 to 30 people coming in to get food, you know, now it's 7, 8, 900 families a week.

The need is growing here in Wayne County because of the increase of prices of food at the grocery stores.

The biggest area we see growth in is that of single working people.

We get a lot of people coming down that are single parents that just need help because by the time they pay their bills, by the time, you know, they provide for their children, they don't have enough to totally provide for their food.

And so they've been coming down and getting food from us and also senior citizens.

Two years ago, I was outside getting ready for a pantry, and a car pulls up and this little older lady gets out of the car and she comes up to me, and I thought she wanted to shake my hand.

So I reached out to shake her hand and she put something in my hand and she goes, here, I want to give this to you.

And I looked down and it was two $100 bills.

And she said, I used to receive food from you and I never would have made it in this life without you.

And I just want to say thank you.

And that has always stood out to me.

And it just reminds me on the hard days, the days where it's 90 degrees inside here sometimes when it gets hot, it just reminds me that we're doing this for something bigger than ourselves.

We're doing this for something more glorious than each other.

You know, it's all about fighting hunger.

We're never going to be able to solve hunger.

We're a piece of the puzzle.

And so in the long term, I just want that piece to continue to grow and grow and grow.

We're never going to take the whole puzzle.

We partnered with so many different organizations.

When you just focus on the one thing that we all have in common, and that's serving, we're called to serve, we're called to reach out.

We're called to help.

We're called to be a piece of that puzzle.

And so when we all focus on that, it's amazing what you can get done.

Really goes back to working with the other partners that we have in this community.

And the importance of our organization to this community is the fact that, again, we are a piece of the big puzzle of serving others in this county.

We can do this.

And so we serve food and we help people with food.

You go to another organization, they help with electricity and utilities and someone else helps with cash and helping with gas and things like that.

And you put us all together and we are what you call the service of this community.

Volunteer wise, we have between 10 and 15 on a normal Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

It takes 10 to 15 people.

We have about 1,000 different volunteers throughout the year that volunteer with us.

And that's just at the pantry.

We do other things as well.

We have a backpack, a food program that we do with the local schools and Wayne County.

We have a CSFP Program, which is a senior box program that we partner with the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank on.

We also have a hygiene pantry that we offer once a month.

We have a mobile food pantry where we go out and we deliver to like, say, Rittman and West Salem during the spring and summer.

So I want to say thank you.

Thank you to all the businesses, the churches, just the volunteers, everybody that comes out and supports us.

The Wooster Hope Center is the largest food pantry in Wayne County, serving between 7 and 900 families a week when we have all our operations going.

Ourselves, we have a volunteer staff that we do a calendar for.

So we have at least, if nobody shows up, we have at least two people that will be here.

Now we need a lot more than two people and volunteers are definitely needed.

We've been very blessed with community volunteers.

We have people that just show up that want to volunteer.

There are some days that some of the local businesses will send down workers to come and volunteer during their time they're supposed to be at work, which we're very thankful for.

But we have just regular people that show up on a regular basis.

I always tell everybody the most important thing you can do is pray for us.

We definitely need prayer.

The second thing is, because we're 100% volunteer, we need volunteers.

All they need to do is go to woosterhopecenter.org, and they can get more information on volunteering.

Or they can email me at rfrazier@woosterhopecenter.org.

And then of course we need donations.

Monetary donations.

It cost money to keep the lights on.

It costs money if we need to buy extra food.

It costs money to put gas in the mobile food pantry, costs money for insurance.

And so there's many ways that people can help.

Prayer, volunteering and then donations.

Lord, we just thank you for today.

We thank you for this place that we have to come and just serve.

We are faith based.

We know who gets all the glory for this and we're very thankful for the work that's done here.

This is just an example of the churches working together here.

Right now represented, there are probably about eight different churches here right now.

And that's what this is all about for us.

- Hi, I'm Natalie Pillsbury, President and CEO of PBS Western Reserve and I'm here today with Lindsay Kuntzman, our Chief Development Officer.

We are taking a break from the special presentation of Feed Our Region to talk to you about supporting PBS Western Reserve.

Our organization is focused on serving our community, telling the stories of our community and keeping those of you watching right now aware of the important things happening in our community.

So, that is why we are focused in this show on our food banks across the region and the impact that they're having in our communities, the challenges they face, the people they're serving, and the needs of our community.

So we hope you're enjoying that you're learning a lot.

And, you know, that's why we are here as a public media organization, nonprofit public media organization to bring you programs like this about our community.

As part of this program, we're here right now with a special goal to raise 20,000 meals to give back to our food bank partners.

And Lindsay will explain a little bit more about how we're going to get there.

- Yes.

You know, you mentioned the word community and I think PBS Western Reserve is such a community oriented organization.

Every year we do this annual feedback survey so that we can see what the community wants from us.

We have so many community oriented local programs like this one you're watching right now, Feed Our Region.

And as a part of this community, we want to help those in need and continue bringing you this local content that you depend on PBS Western Reserve for.

So when you make a donation right now of $60, we are going to say thank you, not with your traditional DVD, mug, CD, it's going to be a thank you gift of meals.

Those meals will be donated in your honor back to the food banks that we are featuring in this Feed Our Region episode.

Say you're able to make a donation of $120, we are going to say thank you with a gift of 40 meals.

Double that and give $240 to PBS Western Reserve, that becomes 80 meals.

If you're able to increase your giving and maybe say, give $360, that becomes 120 meals.

Give $600, it becomes 210 meals.

Give $1,200, that will become 400 meals.

Every donation you make is going to have double the impact because you're supporting PBS Western Reserve and you'll be giving meals to the food bank partners that we are featuring in Feed Our Region tonight.

We even have a special offer to go along with those meals.

Every donation that we say thank you with a gift of meals for, you're going to get a bonus item of a decal from PBS Western Reserve so you can proudly show your support for PBS Western Reserve and feel good knowing that you also made meals possible for those in need.

Our goal tonight is to give 20,000 meals back to our food bank partners.

That's a big number, but we can do it with your support.

Help us keep local programing like this show on the airwaves of PBS Western Reserve with your donation and get a set of meals that will be donated back to our food bank partners.

Call the number on your screen or visit the website right now.

- Yes, it is so important that everybody watching right now make a contribution to support PBS Western Reserve and help us reach our 20,000 meals goal.

You know, when you think about making a contribution right now, maybe you're already giving as a sustaining member of PBS Western Reserve.

We're so grateful for your support.

But this is the perfect time to make an additional contribution to PBS Western Reserve, because your thank you gift is going to be meals that will go back to our food bank partners and in a sense is the contribution will be be having double the impact.

You'll be supporting PBS Western Reserve and public media that serves our region with free and accessible programing and community stories.

And you'll be providing meals to those in our community.

So consider making an additional gift.

If you're already a supporter of PBS Western Reserve as a sustainer.

Now's the time.

We need everybody watching to step up and make a contribution to help keep PBS Western Reserve strong, so that we can continue producing shows, just like Feed Our Region about important organizations doing impactful work in our community.

And you can feel good knowing that your contribution will result in meals being provided to those in need during this season of giving.

So make that contribution.

You can call the number on your screen to easily give or go online to PBSWesternReserve.org/donate and make your contribution there.

Lindsay, you know, we've got this $20,000 meals goal.

I know that's a tall order, but, you know, I feel like we can get there if everyone decides to step up.

- I completely agree.

I think if everyone donated— If everyone watching right now made a donation, we could achieve that 20,000 meal goal immediately.

So we are asking for your support right now.

You'll feel extra good knowing that you're supporting PBS Western Reserve, but it's just one donation that's going to have double the impact because you're going to make meals possible for those in need.

So if you are able to, maybe you can make a donation of $1,200.

That will get you into our producer circle, which is the level of giving that has some extra benefits that comes along with it.

But you're also going to make 400 meals available.

There is such a high need in our region.

There's so much food insecurity and you can help us give away those 20,000 meals with a donation of $1,200 right now.

You would put us so close to reaching our goal and we have a special bonus item, you'll get a decal of PBS Western Reserve that you can use to show off your support of the station and know that you made meals possible for those in need.

We have so much great local programing and national content on PBS Western Reserve and your donation tonight will help support that.

I think public media is really the only place that you would go to find shows like Feed Our Region.

If you want to see local content from PBS Western Reserve, if you love the national content that we offer, we need you to step up right now.

If it's been a while since you donated or maybe you've never donated, do it today because you will have double the impact.

It's just one donation, but it's helping multiple organizations.

It will help us here at PBS Western Reserve and then we will give you a thank you gift of meals that will be donated in your honor back to these food bank partners.

Our hope is to give that 20,000 meals away and it's with your support that we will be able to make it.

So step up with a contribution you can call the number on your screen or visit the website.

- Yes, it is quick and easy to give online at PBSWesternReserve.org.

You can also give us a call and we've got people waiting to answer any questions you might have.

But now is the time to take action and make a contribution to support PBS Western Reserve.

Our organization, you know, is a nonprofit.

That means we rely on our community for support.

And that community support is more important than ever because our federal funding was cut this year and our state funding was reduced.

So we have a gap in our budget that we've been working very hard to fill.

You know, thanks to those of you in the community who have contributed, we're on track to meet our goal for the year, but there is quite a ways to go.

And so your contribution right now during this special, Feed Our Region presentation will help to get us closer and ensure that PBS Western Reserve and public media remain strong for our community.

So make that contribution now.

Your thank you gift will be meals that will go back to our food bank partners.

And you also will be getting that special PBS Western Reserve decal.

Maybe you want to put it on the back of your laptop or on your car.

But you can display it proudly knowing that you're a supporter of this important organization and the work we do to serve our community.

Call the number on your screen or go online to make your contribution right now.

- Yes, and we are counting on everyone making a donation to help us reach that 20,000 meal goal.

So like you said, Natalie, we have heard from hundreds, thousands of people already who have said yes, I support PBS Western Reserve and they have made a donation, but we still need to hear from more of you.

If you’re able, pick up the phone right now, make a donation of $240.

We will say thank you with a gift of 80 meals.

Those will be donated in your honor.

Back to the food banks that we have been featuring in this special episode called Feed Our Region, and that will help get us closer to our goal of 20,000 meals.

So don't wait.

Call the number on your screen or visit the website now.

- So today we are here at the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank, we’re at the main campus in downtown Akron, the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank is the source of emergency food for more than 600 pantries, meal sites, shelters, programs that serve kids, older adults.

We have a lot of different kinds of programs that are serving neighborhoods across our eight county service area.

The food bank is sourcing hundreds of thousands of pounds of food weekly and so there's no way that a pantry typically can store all of that food on their own.

And so they will place their order online, our staff then picks it and preps it for them.

And then every 30 minutes you will see a different partner out in the network partner distribution area picking up their food order.

One thing we say is hunger doesn't take a holiday.

You know, so many folks, if you're struggling to put food on the table, you're typically struggling to put food on the table.

You know, often times when folks are accessing food, it's, you know, the lowest moment in their life, you know?

And so to get over the the stigma that may be associated with that and the pride that they might be feeling, to have someone speak their language and then to see foods that they recognize, it can make the whole process feel so different.

So a couple years ago, we did a renovation to this facility and a big part of what we wanted to do in that renovation was to be able to directly serve individuals and families from this campus and so, The Venarge Family Food Pantry and Resource Center was incorporated into the renovation.

And so three days a week, from 9 to 1, families can come in and shop the shelves as if they were at a grocery store.

They can pick items that work for their families likes, it works for their diets, works for their religion, background, ethnic preferences.

And it has been such a blessing for this community.

The Venarge Family Food Pantry here in Akron has seen tremendous growth.

You know, they're serving typically 800 families every day that they're open.

And so hundreds of thousands of pounds are going out the door every day from that facility.

It really has been a great resource for us to be able to get foods into the hands of the people who need it.

Sometimes English isn't the first language, but, you know, when folks see something that they can make from their original country and they can get those products here at our food pantry, we've seen families bring in those baked goods and say, here, look, this is from my country.

Thank you for helping me be able to make this.

But now I want you to try it because you said you didn't know what it was and so it's been so cool to interview volunteers out there and hear the impact that they're having on local families.

So we're really grateful that we have a variety of partners across our eight county service area that have chosen to partner with the food bank and our mobile pop up pantry.

That particular partner was Kent State University.

They do indeed have a food pantry right there on campus, Flashes Fighting Hunger.

And they reached out to the food bank a few years ago now, they were one of our first partners that the pop up pantry would visit.

So we go to Dix Stadium once a month and we have, you know, that big, beautiful refrigerated truck arrives in the parking lot of the football stadium and they meet us there.

So the partners who partner with the mobile pop up pantry have to provide the volunteers.

So volunteers greet us there, they help unload the truck, set up the tables, set up the tents and get the space ready to serve neighbors.

What's interesting about Kent State is that, you know, Portage County is a rural community.

And so further into the school year, we may serve students at that pop up pantry, but most frequently we're serving community members.

And so folks are coming onto the college's campus and getting food from the food bank to take back to their families.

Typically, an organization will reach out to us or we have identified an area with limited food resources, so a particular community that may not have many hunger relief programs a part of our network in that community, or maybe does have a handful of meal sites and food pantries, but maybe they're not open frequently throughout the course of the month.

So we notice and we realize that there's a gap there.

And so if we can find a community partner to partner with and we'll reach out to them directly.

But often it's partners reaching out, potential partners reaching out to us to see if it would be a good fit.

- Today we’re here, we host a monthly pop up food pantry in partnership with the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank.

It's on the first Thursday of every month from 1 to 3 p.m.

here at the Portage County Health Districts.

And each month we serve 250 to 300 families.

We do this in partnership with 13 other community partners, our Medical Reserve Corps.

We partner with Kent State University, their mobile flashes, and our own team here.

We provide a wide variety of resources, everything from food to hygiene products, car seats, pack and plays, Project Dawn, and our community partners complete blood pressure checks and provide a lot of other resources and education as well.

We reached out to see, you know, what our options are is how we can work together.

We were able to see that they did have other little pop ups and we wanted to to mold that here and that's what we did here working with Todd.

So we connect before each pop up pantry to make sure that we have enough volunteers and staff and just to make sure what resources we can bring.

And then each month we just continue to try to add on more services.

- One of the great things about having a choice pantry like we have today, is that it gives our neighbors the dignity of choosing their own groceries.

They're not just getting what we hope they want but they're getting to choose what they want.

And I think that really affirms that, you know, regardless of what their situation is, they are deserving of choosing and they have that, that agency to get the things that they know they need, not just what other people might think they need.

But we're really trying to reach different areas of need across our service network and so some places were like this at Portage County, where we're near shopping centers, other locations down in like, Carrollton we’re serving a much more rural community.

We also set up pop ups at schools or near schools.

And so we're in urban areas.

So we're serving a lot of different communities with different types of food and hunger assistance needs.

- Every three years, we do a new health assessment where we do collect, you know, primary and secondary data.

And absolutely, the difference between 2022 and 2025, it has definitely increased.

Yes, the need is increased.

And and then just boots on the ground talking to our community partners, talking to our staff who are out there doing the things they're seeing the increasing need every single day.

So we're really feeling it right now.

- It is.

Yes.

- Yes, yes, yes.

- I have chills.

- I know, right?

- We were both born and raised in Portage County.

We both live in Portage County.

These are our neighbors.

They are.

I don't know if you— If you saw earlier, like, hugs and friendships and they know, like, hey, I had this question about the Center of Hope.

I'm like, I have the answer and if I don't, we know who is... This is the passion.

This is where we are.

- Yes.

- Yeah, this is meaningful work for me because I really believe that everyone is deserving of respect and we all at different stages of our life could use some assistance.

We could use some help.

You know, for me, growing up, you know, I had, free lunches at school.

You know, there were times where our family needed help and so I recognize what that's like.

I've had family members that have needed assistance and... So I love being able to give back in that way.

It is personal.

I just want to encourage people to look into ways that they can contribute to the need for food assistance in their community.

Whether that is, you know, definitely, hey, we help with the food bank, but there are so many, so many places that are just, the need for food assistance is only increasing and assistance from a lot of our government institutions is declining.

And so just wanted to speak to the need for our individuals in our community to to step in however they can.

That's going to look different, whether that's volunteering or giving.

But, the need is only growing.

- So there are a lot of ways that someone can volunteer with your food bank.

We recommend looking at akron cantonfoodbank.org/volunteer or just search volunteer on our website and you can find all the different ways you can get involved.

Again, you can come in to the volunteer center.

You can work in the pantry.

You can deliver food orders directly to someone's home.

You can help out a special event.

There's so many ways that you can engage with your food bank.

Every dollar donated to your Akron Canton Regional Food Bank helps provide enough food for three meals.

We are spending more money on food this year than ever before because of those cuts.

So we know that, you know, Covid, we saw a huge spike in people needing access to groceries.

And then some really great government programs were put in place to help people afford groceries on their own.

Those programs have all expired.

And so now people are kind of back where they were.

And then when you add in inflation over the past couple of years, now we have a government shutdown.

There's a lot of anxiety and unknowns surrounding that.

And so right now, we are sourcing and distributing more food per month than we ever have in our 42 year history and so the need is great.

Thankfully, we have really generous supporters and donors who have continued to help us meet that need.

But this year alone, we're looking at distributing 5 to 6 million meals less simply because of those federal and state cuts that we experienced earlier this year.

And so, though the need is great, that government support is lower and so we're trying to find ways to be able to meet that need.

But we just hope that people know their food bank is here for them.

Their community supports them and no one, no one should have to make a tough choice between food and other essentials.

- We're taking just a short break during the special presentation of Feed Our Region, our show about the impact of food banks across our region.

We're here right now to have a very special interview with Dan Flowers, who is the President and CEO of the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank.

Thank you so much for being here with us, Dan.

- Natalie, it is so good to see you.

Thank you so much for having us, for doing this important work, telling the story, assisting us in getting that word out.

But I'm super excited that you are in this position at the station.

Thank you so much for continuing your many years of partnership with the food bank in our work, so.

- We're so grateful for the partnership and happy to build awareness about the important work that you're doing.

I just have a few questions for you.

We want to dive a little deeper and provide some insight to our viewers beyond what they're seeing on the show.

- Yeah.

- So we'll kick it off by talking about the incredible news that the J.M.

Smucker Company has donated its Orville retail store plus land to the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank.

What are your plans for the space and how will that impact your operations?

- You know, usually when you do an expansion like this, that you do a strategic plan and you have a lot of conversations about programing needs that are in a particular area, and then you launch a capital campaign and if you're lucky, 5 or 7 years after you start the conversation, you finally get into the building.

This kind of happened in reverse, you know, they called us back in the spring.

And, you know, made the offer that the property would become available and instantly I was like, yeah, absolutely, you know, we'd love to have it.

And they were so generous on every level.

You know, we had concerns about just the immediate cost of having the facility and keeping it up while we think about programmatic usages.

So they granted, they gave us $1 million to cover five years worth of expenses to have the building and offered us a great deal of support and collaboration and figuring out specifically how we use it.

We all know we're going to use it to help feed people and fight hunger in Wayne County.

But I think that we want to have really, deliberative, conversations with the stakeholders in that community to find out what the community needs the most, what we can sustain, and how we're going to best leverage it.

There's about, I think, 20,000ft² there.

30 acres.

So it was a tremendous donation.

No doubt, we're going to drive a lot of value there, but, a lot remains to be seen.

So I'd love to come back maybe we get further along in those conversations.

- Yeah.

More details to come.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- Congratulations.

That's so exciting.

- Yeah.

It’s a great company.

- Yes.

Incredible.

In your years as CEO of the Akron Canton Regional Food Bank, how have you seen food insecurity change in our region and how have resources evolved to help our neighbors in need?

- Interestingly, you know, I've been food banking for like 30 years.

So I came in during the tech boom of the 90s.

I was there during 911, during the housing crisis, during the Great Recession, during the pandemic.

And so I've seen a lot of these trends.

I think there's a through line in my experience, is that poverty is what, you know, drives people into all kinds of diffcult situations in life.

Food insecurity of course being one of them.

I've also seen big correlations over the years between the level of government support for nutrition programs and how many people are coming into the lines at food pantries.

You know, there's been administrations that lean into both here in the state level and federally that will apply more resources to it.

And you will see the number of people at soup kitchens and homeless shelters and food pantries go down.

And then you'll see other changes to those programs and that will go up.

That's one thing I've seen a lot.

I think we’re in an era right now of some more constrained resources from a government standpoint.

- Yeah.

- And so, you know, I believe that on the tail end of coming out of Covid with a big increase in inflation, has resulted in the high numbers of people that we're seeing right now.

So certainly, I don't know when this is going to air, but, you know, we're in the midst of the government shutdown, right now.

- Yep.

- And there'll be impacts to SNAP benefits if this is prolonged into the month of November, then I would anticipate with about 170,000 people in our region that we serve that receive SNAP benefits.

That would show up on our radar.

And in terms of more people, right now it's just the furloughed workers.

So that's a little smaller percentage.

So I've seen a lot of changes over the years.

One thing that's been pretty consistent and, you know, or maybe just another point I would make is that when I started food banking, food banks were really small.

And so, you know, the food bank that we're at here in Akron, we did about 7.5 million pounds of distribution that first year.

We did 40 million pounds of food distribution last year.

And now, you know, our food bank is like one of the biggest human service agencies in the region.

And that's true in every market in America.

Well, that wasn't true 30 years ago when I started.

The biggest food banks in the country, the major market food banks were doing about 30 million pounds of food distribution 30 years ago.

- What changed to... - Just capacity.

- Yeah.

- Little by little, food banks did capital campaigns and they started bringing in more donors and all that.

So I'd be remiss if I just said, well, you know, there's more people coming in than ever without telling the story too, that the food bank model is really matured in this country, then I think we've been able to develop, probably the greatest charitable response to food insecurity in the history of the world and what's happening at food banks around the country.

And I think a lot of people have benefited from billions and billions of dollars and pounds worth of food that are being provided to them, that they wouldn't have had otherwise had this model not been created.

So there is a one cool through line is that.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

That it's, you know, grown and evolved to be able to serve more people— - Yeah, we have this now.

- More efficiently.

Yeah.

- We have this asset.

And so the story isn't always bad news in terms of people that need it.

When we serve more people we help more people.

- Yes.

- And they, they're able to buy their kids shoes and all that other stuff, but anyway.

- Well, thank you for the work that you do.

- Thanks for supporting it.

- Just shifting a little bit to, you know, along the lines of what you've seen and experienced, but is there a particular story that you'd like to share about your, you know, somebody who found assistance through the food bank, something that's meaningful to you or struck a chord with you?

- Well, we'll serve about 300,000 people this year and every single one of them has a story.

- Well, yeah.

- But I guess one story I could share briefly that has probably impacted me more than any interaction I've had out of thousands over my career.

Back in 2003, we did a food distribution.

It was a food giveaway in the mornings of the fall and it’s kind of chilly out.

It's our first one.

So we set all this food out in the parking lot, and there's a lot of people coming through.

And I noticed a gal pulling a wagon.

She had a little son in the wagon all bundled up.

She just was wearing a t shirt.

Yeah, I can see her— You know, they breathe, you can see the, you know, vapors, cool.

- Yeah.

- And when she came, she got in front of me and I just said jokingly to her, I was like, goodness sakes it’s so cold, where's your coat?

She said, I don't have a coat.

And in the moment, I just didn't know what to do.

I was like 32 and I was like, hey, you should get one or— I don't even know what I did, but, I didn't go get her one, I didn't ask.

And about, I don't know, 2 or 3 years ago or after that, I donated the coat that I had on that day to the Haven of Ross because I couldn't even wear that coat.

I felt so guilty for not just giving her the one that I had on just giviner her the the one that I had on.

And so I think I, probably why I tell that story is because, a lot of helping people can give this illusion of our own wonderfulness and I think that was instructive to me about what I was lacking in the moment.

- Yeah.

- And I've always come back to that as, like, you like to, you know, to do more, to not miss a moment, to help.

- Yeah.

- To pay attention.

An offhanded comment to me about why she didn't have a coat on, it was very instructive.

And, so I wish it was like a better story, but... - No, that’s a great story.

- I learned a ton from it.

- Yeah, yeah.

Thank you for sharing.

- Thanks for asking for sure.

- Along that lines, we have about a minute left.

You know, is there any speaking of helping, how can people who are watching right now get involved?

Is there an event coming up where they can help or ways that they can support your work?

- Yeah.

Well, the best place to go is akroncantonfoodbank.org.

It'd be great if you could put it on the screen, akroncantonfoodbank.org.

You can make a donation there, which we always appreciate.

You can sign up to volunteer, which we also need very much.

And there's a page where you just get involved, you can also, there's a food finder there so somebody, you know, needs— So I would try to get that message out about these, government, this potential SNAP cuts because of the shutdown.

- Oh, yeah.

- Get a plan if you think you're going to be affected, by a job loss or whatever, find a pantry before you need it.

That's just really good advice.

Two events that are coming up I’d want to mention, our annual gala, the Mary Meals Mixer, is coming up on December 3rd at the Ohio Christmas Factory.

Super fun event.

And then we have an annual annual 5k.

I think this is a 12 or 13th year we've run the Selfless Elf 5k at the food bank and I don't have the date on that.

Maybe you could put it up there.

- Yeah.

Yeah, we'll be sure to share that with our viewers.

- It’s on our website.

- Wonderful.

Well, thank you so much, Dan.

It's been great talking with you and learning more about the work that you're doing and, you know, congratulations on the new facility and all the impact you're having in the community.

- Thanks, Natalie.

You're great.

And the community is lucky to have you in this job.

- Thank you.

- Yes, Ma'am.

— We'll get you back to the show.

- Our reason for being is that we provide food to our 160 pantries so they can go back to their location and help the people and their community.

Pretty simple.

We have the food, they need the food, the people that are hungry need the food, and the flow works very, very well.

I think I can express the passion, the fact I've been here 25 years and I'm old hands and I haven't left, right?

So didn't I leave?

Because this is a passion.

It's something that grows on you.

When you meet the people that are doing the work in the pantries and over the years, I've made it a point to visit the pantries and I've gotten to know them when they come here, but when you go on their turf and you see what they're doing and it just blows your mind when you see how passionate they are.

I've met some of the recipients in various situations and sometimes you have a little talk and they like to talk and they couldn't be more grateful.

And then they say, without that pantry, I don't know if we could make it.

- We serve Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana County.

We have 160 different partners.

Some of them are church pantries, some are school pantries.

We have after school programs.

We have meal sites.

We also have rehabilitation centers, adult centers.

So we service a lot of different places and for a lot of different reasons.

We have seen a little bit of an increase this year.

When we compared this summer to last summer, we're up about 8%, which is still an increase.

Not dramatic because we feel that many of our people that need us already know about us and are using our pantries.

So, unfortunately each year we see the numbers climb.

In 2024, our average going out of days, about 50,000 pounds going out a day.

So that means we should hopefully bring in that much every day.

Kim does such a wonderful job of making sure that we have what we need, that it's coming in and keeping this place full.

And a lot of that is because of the grants and the donors that help us get this done.

- So we get our our donations from everywhere.

We have a group of trucks that are out every day making our regular stops at grocery stores.

So we get a lot of product that way.

We get product through food drives.

Our community is fantastic with supporting us.

We also get products through the USDA and their TEFAP program, the Ohio Association.

And we get a lot of purchase product as well to fill in those gaps, any gaps that we might have.

We receive truckloads of products every day and we have a team of people on forklifts that will check the product and make sure it's a quality product.

Then they will inventory it to make sure that we're getting everything we're supposed to, and then they will find a place to store all of that food.

In the meantime, the product that we already have on our shelves, so to speak, our agencies of place, what we call it an order.

And we have another set of staff that will go around and select that order and build what we call the pallets.

And then the agencies will come in at a designated time and pick their order up.

- Last year we distributed 10.6 million pounds of food out of here.

2.5 million pounds for fresh produce.

That equated to 8.8 million meals over the three county area.

You know, obviously there are people that in that count that have to go several times.

We believe we're on track to go closer to a 11 million pounds of food out of here this year.

So which would bring us closer to 9 million meals.

And that just tells you how necessary our work is.

You know, we always hope that the numbers will come down, but unfortunately they aren't and we need to be here and that's what we're doing.

- Armstrong is a local company, and being a local company, we take a lot of pride in to giving back to the community and to our customers.

So being here at Second Harvest Food Bank, we love to get a crew together once a month, come out and do whatever Second Harvest Food Bank needs us to do to give back to our community.

Today we are packing senior boxes which consist of a lot of canned goods, juice.

And hopefully they'll, you know, get everything taken care of today so we can get these boxes to our senior citizens.

You know, when you think about volunteering, you're rolling out of bed and it's like, I don't want to do this.

All right, well, once you get here and as welcoming as Second Harvest is, and you start, you just want to keep going.

I mean, we all say, oh, that was a quick two hours that we volunteered and it flew by and it's like, well, next month we're coming back.

So you know it's a sense, the time flies and you feel good about helping your community.

- We have probably 500 volunteers right now.

Some that are come every day, 100 or so that come every day.

But then we've got the groups like today, Armstrong who’s here today.

We've had other organizations.

We have the Retired Teachers, we have the Corvette Club, dozens of organizations that come in once a month or once a quarter or something of that nature.

You couldn't do it without the community, and they're very visible here.

And we have a waiting list of volunteers that want to be here every day.

- We are in our newest addition, and it is an extra 10,000ft² that was put on within the last year, and it holds about 300 more pallets, which is great because we learned during Covid and during the train accident in East Palestine that we were running out of space.

We have a very generous neighbor here that has donated the land to us not once, but twice.

And without them, we wouldn't be able to do what we do here as well.

So this extra 10,000ft² also host a garage in the front.

It's the first time forever that we can house our trucks and our van and that's very important because those are investments that have come through foundation money and some grants.

And we want to protect those investments, so that's big for us.

The extra space right now helps us get prepared because our busiest time of year is coming.

The holidays are coming and Kim who does our ordering, she has to order months in advance to get things in here that are going to be going out until November and December.

So part of this stock in here is getting prepared for the holidays and the winter months.

- So November and December are our busiest times of the year for sure.

They've got so much added expenses with utilities and just, you know, we're in a cold area so it gets cold, schools back in session.

So they're dealing with a lot of that.

November, December and January are by far our busiest times of the year.

- We get the credit, hey, you guys built a great operation there.

You do fabulous work.

But we couldn't do it without the organization.

We could not do it with a without all the people in this valley that supported us.

And we're blessed.

That’s all I can say.

We have to be realistic that there's a higher power out there that helped us get here.

It wasn't just me.

It wasn't— It's a higher power.

That said, this is what– We can't let these people, we cannot let these people go without food.

So you're in charge.

And thank you.

It gave me a lot of help.

Gave me a lot of help.

- From a simple dollar to higher up, you can make such an impact.

Even just raising awareness.

Sometimes just the fact that you might know a neighbor that needs to go to a pantry and they don't have transportation, that's a big thing for people sometimes, is transportation.

If you help that person go and get their food, to me, that's helping us because that's in the circle of helping everything.

It's heartwarming.

It's just more of continuing the work of care and compassion and it's just hard to put it into words.

I get emotional sometimes because it does mean an awful lot to me.

- Hello, I'm Natalie Pillsbury, President and CEO of PBS Western Reserve, and I'm here with Lindsay Kuntzman, our Chief Development Officer.

We're taking a break from this incredible program, Feed Our Region, for just one moment to talk to you about supporting PBS Western Reserve and our food bank partners.

This program was developed by our team at PBS Western Reserve to highlight the important work of our food banks throughout the region.

They are truly doing so much to help people who are suffering from food insecurity, to make sure that they can stay healthy and fed and well to live their best lives.

And, you know, we felt it was important to bring you the stories of these organizations, the challenges they face, and to build awareness in our community.

And it's so important that programs like this exist, and that's why public media is here for our community.

We're asking you to step up and make a contribution to PBS Western Reserve right now.

And your contribution will not only support PBS Western Reserve, it will also help our food bank partners.

And Lindsay will explain a little bit more about how this works.

- Yes.

So right now we have this incredible opportunity.

When you make a donation, you will have the option to select a thank you gift of meals.

So instead of your traditional tote bags, DVDs, books, you will be given meals as a thank you gift, which we will then donate in your honor to these food banks that are featured in Feed Our Region.

This means when you donate to PBS Western Reserve, you're really going to have double the impact.

Just one gift, but you're supporting this type of programing on PBS Western Reserve, and you'll be providing meals to those who are food insecure in our region.

For example, if you were to give a donation of $60 right now that will provide 20 meals to those in need.

Say you can double that and do $120, that's going to provide 40 meals.

If you give $240, that's 80 meals.

If you able to make a $360 donation to support PBS Western Reserve, that becomes a thank you gift of 120 meals.

All together, we are trying to donate 20,000 meals back to our region.

So every contribution is going to help get us a little bit closer to that goal.

It's so important that you step up with a donation right now.

Not only are so many people food insecure in our region, but here at PBS Western Reserve, we have a budget gap that we need to fill up $600,000.

We have lost funding due to the recession of federal funding from the government, and the state of Ohio has also cut our funding.

That means we are looking to everyone in the community to step up and help support PBS Western Reserve with a donation.

That is what allows us to create content like feed our region.

And when you make that donation, you're going be given a thank you gift of meal so you can feel extra good that during this season of giving, you're having double the impact.

Helping PBS Western Reserve and helping these food bank partners, we need you to call the number on your screen right now or visit our websites.

- Yes, it is so important that everyone watching right now make the choice to contribute in support of this, of our Feed Our Region show and our goal of reaching 20,000 meals that we will be contributing back to our food bank partners across the region.

The work that they do in the community is so valuable and important.

And, you know, the work that PBS Western Reserve does for our community, telling our community stories, providing educational resources and accessible programing for free to everyone in our region is also extremely valuable.

If you're watching right now, we're sure that you're aware of the value of PBS Western Reserve.

So by making a contribution to PBS Western Reserve right now, you're supporting two highly valuable community institutions that provide services for free to those in need in our community.

Make that contribution to PBS Western Reserve.

You know, as Lindsay said at the maybe the $120 level, that's going to result in a thank you gift of meals that will go back to our food bank partners and help to feed people during this season of giving.

Don't wait, step up and make your contribution right now.

Call the number on your screen or you can easily give online to make that contribution.

- Yes.

You know Natalie, here at PBS Western Reserve, we have so much local content.

We have shows like this one, Feed Our Region.

We have the World According to Polka, by Nature's Design.

We have our digital series Local Focus, where we do this deep dive into the people, places, events happening in our region.

Shows like this are what you count on and expect from PBS Western Reserve, and we can only make them possible with your support.

So please step up with a donation right now.

We need everyone to help us reach this goal that we have of providing 20,000 meals to those in need in our region.

PBS Western Reserve as a part of this community and we are counting on the community to not only support us, but help those neighbors in need.

If you make a donation right now of $60, that will become a thank you gift of meals.

We will get 20 meals, to be exact, with that donation of $60, and you can feel good knowing that you are supporting PBS Western Reserve.

We are counting on everyone because not only are you going to help neighbors in need right now, but you are going to be keeping PBS Western Reserve strong for the future.

We are looking to fill a budget gap of $600,000 right now.

We have made tremendous progress.

I think we're already over 35% of our goal to filling that budget gap, but that means we still have a ways to go.

We need you to step up right now, and you will feel extra good, because it is going to have double the impact.

Not only are you making content like this available for PBS Western Reserve and the community, but you are supporting those neighbors in need because we will say thank you with a gift of meals.

Please call the number on your screen or visit the website right now and make that contribution.

- Yes.

You know, we have that goal of 20,000 meals.

You know, it sounds like a lot, but if everyone who's watching right now makes the choice to contribute to PBS Western Reserve, we know we can get there.

And then we'll be providing that 20,000 meals back to people in our communities who are, you know, suffering from food insecurity.

It's so important that you make the choice to contribute to PBS Western Reserve right now.

Our organization is a nonprofit public media organization.

We rely on support from our community, which is more important than ever because our federal funding was cut and our state funding was reduced.

So we have a gap in our budget that we are working extremely hard to fill.

We're so appreciative to everyone who has contributed so far.

But we still have a ways to go and you can help us get there by contributing right now during Feed Our Region.

We hope you're enjoying this programing where you're learning about the work of our food banks and organizations in our community that are helping to provide food and vital resources to those in need.

So please say thank you by giving us a call.

You can use the number on your screen or going online to make a contribution.

Your thank you gift will be meals.

You know, maybe Natalie, you've been watching for a while and you haven't made a donation.

Or maybe it's been a quite a while since you've donated.

This is the perfect time.

Because when you make that donation, you're going to feel extra good knowing you're supporting PBS Western Reserve and making meals possible for those in the region.

If you're able to, you can join us at the producer circle level with a $1,200 donation.

At that level, you're going to have a significant impact not only on PBS Western Reserve, but you're going to make 400 meals possible.

That is going to get us so close to that 20,000 goal of donating that many meals back to our food bank partners.

So that's again at the $1,200 level.

We will say thank you with 400 meals.

And again, you'll feel so good knowing that you're making content possible on PBS Western Reserve.

We need everyone to step up, help us help our food banks in the region.

Call the number on your screen or visit that website right now.

Yeah, on the website you can, take a look at all the different giving levels and, sort of take a look at how many meals your gift will be providing to our food bank partners.

But, you know, now is the time to make this contribution, support PBS Western Reserve and help make meals possible for those in need in our community.

Last year at Christmas time, we had a single father.

His name is Craig and he's on dialysis.

He had his first kidney transplant and it didn't take.

So he's back on the kidney transplant list.

He works, I believe, two jobs.

And again, he's a single dad.

He's working two jobs so that he can keep his health insurance so that he can also not only keep his health insurance, but feed his family.

He utilizes one of our member agencies.

He let me come into his home.

He let me talk to him.

And it was just really a humbling experience because, you know, a lot of times people think that our neighbors who come to us for assistance, they don't work.

That's simply not the case.

Our neighbors are working.

Their paychecks just simply aren't stretching as far as they used to.

And if there's anything I could dispel, that would be it.

Stop assuming about our neighbors.

You know, our our neighbors are seniors, their children, their veterans.

They're your family.

They're your neighbors.

And they simply just aren't making enough anymore.

And they're having to make impossible choices.

And that is why we exist.

We are not a handout.

We are a hand up.

If you want me to be honest, we were food insecure, growing up.

I mean, my mom worked.

My stepdad actually got her in an accident, and we had to use one of our member agencies at one time to get by.

So when I started, I worked in a nonprofit before here.

And when I started here, I was like, I definitely will stay in nonprofit work.

And I was doing events and I was doing volunteers, and I loved it.

But then when I moved to the grant side, it was so much more personal, because if you want me to be honest, if I don't raise that, I know internally that that means someone doesn't eat.

That means a child doesn't get a meal.

I'm a mother.

I have two kids.

I can't imagine not having the food to feed my daughters.

If you want me to be quite honest, if my husband or myself didn't work, we would need the help of the food bank.

Nine times out of ten, each one of us is one paycheck away of needing help.

So I love to be able to go out and tell people, you know, we're no better than the neighbors that we serve.

It's our community.

I love to say it takes the community to feed a community, and it's so much more personal because we are one county food bank, we know our neighbors, and when we're going out and we're talking to our neighbors, it's home.

It really is.

Someone once helped me.

I like to know that I can help someone else.

We hope that you've enjoyed watching this special presentation of Feed Our Region, a show produced by PBS Western Reserve all about the impact of food banks in our region.

And it is just incredible the work that they are doing to help people in need across our region.

And there is such a great need.

And that's why we brought you this program.

We want to build, raise awareness about the work of organizations like our food bank partners across the region, the impact that they're having in the community and the community need.

So we hope that you learned something and that you enjoyed learning about food banks in our region.

And of course, we are here asking for your support in honor of this program and the great work of the food banks and the impact that we as a nonprofit public media organization, have on our community here in Northeast Ohio.

So please consider making a contribution to PBS Western Reserve.

Your thank you gift will be meals.

And right now, if you call that number on your screen or visit our website, not only are you getting those thank you gifts of meals, but we also have a special offer where you'll get a decal that says PBS Western Reserve so you can show your support for this station.

This type of local content is what public media is all about, and it only happens because of viewers like you who step up and make a donation.

We are asking everyone to contribute right now because we are trying to donate back to these food bank partners 20,000 meals.

So if you make a donation of $60, we will say thank you with a gift of meals.

There will be 20 meals.

That will help us get ever closer to that goal of giving back 20,000 meals.

So it's just one donation, but it's going to be double the impact.

And right now, with the loss of our federal funding, the reduction in state funding, PBS Western Reserve needs the support of everyone in the community so we can keep bringing you the local content like this show, as well as all the national content that you depend on.

Please call the number on your screen or visit the website right now.

Yes, it is so important that everyone watching right now make a contribution to support PBS Western Reserve, and you'll feel good knowing that your thank you gift it results in meals going to our food bank partners.

You know, usually you would select a mug or a tote bag.

Well, now your thank you gift will have more impact in the community by providing meals to people in need.

So make that contribution right now.

Support PBS Western Reserve and your thank you gift of meals will help those neighbors that need, food in our communities.