Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome, welcome, welcome it. It is time now for our community connection right here on Kate one You Trust, brought to you in part by Tall Grassmotors and Wesley and Kitty College. And today it's a beautiful day. It's a beautiful day in more ways of one sunshine and everybody appears to be pretty healthy today. But it's also a day where we're going to do some of the best good we possibly can.
We have Whitney in from our Best Bank and also the Foundation, and also Misty in here from Mary Martha Outreach, and we're talking today about the million Meals campaign. That's a lot of meals.
It is, and we're super excited to do it again this year. This is our fifteenth year. We started in twenty eleven, and so we get to partner with great food partners like Mary Martha Outreach, Misty and her team. But our goal is to make sure that we address food and securities and the communities that we serve here
in Oklahoma. We're fifth in the nation for food insecurities and so we know people are wondering where their next meal is and so at our best we want to help with that and so we know that folks like Misty and her team do a great job. If we can donate some funds to them, that they will get the meals to the people who need them.
Now, Misty, we know this is very real, but you see it up front, and a lot of times you would never know unless you did know, because a lot of people that they.
Pass on through right, right, and a lot of people it's hard to ask. And the time now is even more prevalent than it has been in the past. It's and we're seeing a major food desert. Even with the food we're receiving now, so to be able to buy it with our proceeds from you know, like our vest, it's we wouldn't be able to operate.
Really wow, that's amazing. And it is such a smooth operation too. We hate to see any kind of disruption or interruption. Now, Whitney, how do we average citizens participate to make sure that we keep Mary Martha rolling here?
Absolutely well. We're taking donations from April to first, all the way through May thirty first. There are three ways that you can donate. You can come to any of our branch locations and donate here in Bartlesville, or Dewey, and all of those funds go directly to Mary Martha.
Or if time's a crunch for you and you just can't get to the bank, you can go to rvest dot com forward slash million Meals make a donation that way, or if you're an Ourvest customer, you can go directly to your Rvest app and make a donation that way. We try to make it as easy as possible for folks because we know that people's lives are busy they can't always get to the bank. But we're also doing
some really fun things in the bank. Last week we had a bake sale, Yeah you did, and there were some yummy treats, and we'll have more baked sales throughout the end of this month and through next month. But also this week we're doing our Cutest Pet contest, and so if you are an animal lover, come and vote for one of the cutest pets, make a donation. We would love to see you in any of our branches.
You know, I've been this Million Meals campaign very successful for over fifteen years, and when you think about how many people were helped and probably saved a few lives, this is amazing. And this is something that's just not here, but throughout the whole our best footprint.
That's correct.
So in the last fifteen years, we've raised twenty five million meals for folks with food insecurities, and that's through our four state footprint Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, in Kansas and monetarily we've raised four point five million dollars. Last year, we were able to raise here in Bartlesville three thousand, five hundred dollars and we want to increase that by fifteen percent this year because it is our fifteen year anniversary, so got to have a goal exactly so we know
we can do it. We know we can do it with the help of folks out there who just have a heart for giving. And just please note that we take no your full donation. One hundred percent of the proceeds go directly to Mary Martha and Mistery.
Getting back to your organization for the people who haven't lived here all their lives or we've only been here for a little bit, maybe just heard the name. Tell us a little bit more about the organization.
Correct, Okay, So we are a food print pantry and we provide food weekly to families in need. They need to be within two hundred percent of poverty level, which and I'm not real you know, particular about that. If they're a little bit over, I'm not going to let anybody go hungry. But we're open from Monday through Wednesday, nine to eleven and Thursdays twelve to two. But we also have a clothing room and we do toiletries the first of the month, and we do back to school
clothing and coats. Yes, we do coats for the wintertime. But we couldn't do that without the extra proceeds from people like Arvest. Arvest is our largest local sponsor, wow, besides the Unit of Way. Absolutely, so it's very important that our people come together and help help continue this cause.
How long have you been around.
Mary, Martha has been around twenty five years.
Wow. So you guys kind of got a little anniversary thing going twenty five to fifteen. So why don't you just kind of put it together, folks and make this a big deal. Yes, this would be a great time to do that. Anytime, it would be a great time to do it, but now in particular.
Yes, and you know, people can donate a dollar and that makes a difference absolutely, you know, I think that's one thing is it doesn't have to be a very large donation. Everyone's donation counts and that's really important to us. You know, each year we also have a change drive during this time. So even if you want to come in and give us some change, we would love to take that. Everyone has some pennies laying around in a
in a junk drawer or a bolder. Yes, so we will take as little or as much as you would like to give or you can give. We know that everyone can't always give a lot, but when you can give means a lot to us, and I know it means a lot to Mary Martha, and we would love any donations.
Well, that would be great. So folks, you know, come on, it's just a little bit, but it goes a long way, and let's try to hit that fifteen percent increased goal. Okay, this is all. This is really wonderful. Now you say online we can read a little bit more about it and make the donation at the same spot.
Sure, absolutely, yes, anybody can go online to Harvest dot com, forward slash million meals and make that donation and read about Mary Martha. But also I just want to make a little plug. There is an article and be monthly right now as we speak that our marketing manager Stevie Williams and with partnership with Misty wrote and it's out there. And so if you want to learn a little bit more about Million Meals, pick up a b monthly today and please feel free to read that article.
Wonderful and work. We find out more online about Mary Mile.
Outreach, so Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma and search for Mary Martha. And we also have a Facebook page, oh yes, a group and we try to be very active on that as well. And one thing I wanted to say too is fundraiser that they're doing now is my most favorite. They're doing the Easter egg hunt or hiding. They will you go and they will do it all for you and the Easter Bunny just shows up. So yeah, you go to the east Side Branch.
Yes, you go to the east Side Bridge. It's called egg My Yard. If you are someone who can't maybe you're not physically able to go and get Easter eggs and fill them with candy, or you still have time, you can. You can make a donation and have your your yard egged. And that means that we will come out and we will hide eggs in your front yard so that your kids can go out and be able to hunt eggs.
Favorite. I do it every year from my kids and I legitimately don't know that it happened. Yeah, amazing.
Yeah, that's at our east Side location over off of Adams Boulevard. They're running that all through the week. I think they're taking donations all the way until Thursday, and then Thursday and Friday they'll go in egg your yard.
My goodness. So we have the locations here downtown east Side, and we have a branch up in Dewey.
We do. We also have one south of town near Colonial. Yeah yeah, yeah, yes, any of those locations they're accepting donations. And again our food partner here in Bartlesville and in Dewey is Mary Martha.
Well this is gonna be great. So folks are dig deep, let's go. You can do it, and let's make this happen. Million meals, My goodness, six fifteen years in the business, helping an agency that's been around for twenty five prolonged, and of course make sure that folks who need it most get it. That's great, What a great story and what a great event. It is, so you know what, listeners, we got to make it happen.
That's right, And we just want to say thank you for all those folks that have donated before. Thank you so much for your donations. And those are that are considering making a donation, thank you very much for your consideration. And we just really appreciate being part of this community.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right, new folks, you've been watching and listening to our Community Connection program. It's been brought to you in part by Tall Grass Motors and Wesley and Kitty College