I could say welcome back, but I guess technically it has been me who has been gone, not you. Let me restate, I really haven’t been gone, I just haven’t written a monthly update for a few months. What started off to be just taking a break turned in to more and more time passing until Diana mentioned that she really missed my monthly letters and assumed many of our supporters also might miss them. As a man who has been married over 43 years, I took my que and began to work on the September 2019 edition. I think I have written this before, but writing one of these every month provides new respect for those newspaper folks who do this on a daily basis. My hat is off to all those “newsies” with whom I worked for those many years and never thanked them for a hard job that was well done.

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September is Hunger Action Month. You’ve heard me talk about it before. This year we have upped our game. The biggest event of the month is the Spectrum Brands Corporate Challenge. Nearly 50 businesses are competing for a trophy and bragging rights to say they collected more food per capita than any of the other participants. This year our goal, set by chairman Daniel Boone of Outdoor Cap, is 500,000 pounds collected, over 40% more than last year’s total. Listening to the trash talk going on between companies, I believe the goal will be greatly surpassed. Thanks to Mike Williams and the development team for their efforts in this. I also want to give a special shout out to Kenneth Medlin of Spectrum Brands for all he does to make this a success.
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Other events scheduled for the month include:
September 5: Stand up for Hunger Comedy Event at the Grove in Lowell
September 9-13: Eat at Big Orange in Rogers where a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Food Bank.
September 12: Guest Bartender night at Brick Street Brews in downtown Rogers, featuring me.
September 14: Tailgate party at Village on the Creeks
September 17: Tyson Hunger Heroes
September 28: Bikes on the Bricks Poker Run

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Please take a couple of minutes and read the attached press release regarding the consolidation of Feed Communities into the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank. I’m really excited about the opportunities this brings to the Food Bank and the food insecure in our service area.

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IT’S FINISHED! I literally cannot remember how long I have been writing to warn you of the ongoing construction of Highway 265 and the redesign of our truck turnaround area as a result of losing our circle drive. I’m proud to say that this week asphalt was put down so we are officially not a construction zone any more. They say out of adversity comes opportunity. This is the case for us. Because of the construction creating a safety issue, we began delivering to partner agencies. Delivering allows our partner agencies to better use their volunteers, allows us to use our trucks and deliver more food to the agencies, and most importantly allows us, along with our partner agencies, to serve more food insecure individuals.

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Finally, after months of asking you not to come because of the construction, I invite you to come to the Food Bank anytime your schedule allows to volunteer, take a tour, or just visit with our staff about how you can help.

Thanks to each of you for your continued support.
Because of you someone will eat today


Kent