Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, welcome, and it's time now for our community
Speaker 1: connection right here on K one, the one you trust,
Speaker 1: Whitney Doland. We've been seeing an awful lot of you
Speaker 1: and that means we've got some good news coming up
Speaker 1: about the million meals with our Best Bank.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're three fourths of the way there. We've raised
Speaker 2: over twelve thousand dollars for Marymoth Outreach right here in Bartlesville. Wow,
Speaker 2: and we have a few weeks to go. Our goal
Speaker 2: is to get to a little over sixteen thousand, and
Speaker 2: so we're right on target. And so I just want
Speaker 2: to say a huge thank you to everyone who's made
Speaker 2: a donation. It really has made a huge impact and
Speaker 2: we'll continue to make an impact in this community. And so,
Speaker 2: but we got a little ways to go, and so
Speaker 2: if you haven't made that donation yet, we would love
Speaker 2: for you to come by and make one in any
Speaker 2: of our locations here in Bartlesville or do we And
Speaker 2: of course you can make a donation on your RVESO
Speaker 2: app as well.
Speaker 1: That is one of the coolest things I've ever put
Speaker 1: on my phone. Yeah, it's it helps in so many ways,
Speaker 1: a lot of questions, saves a lot of heartache and
Speaker 1: it brings a lot of joy. Yeah yip, we got
Speaker 1: some anyway. So with this million meals, what we have
Speaker 1: is a big footprint because our best is just not
Speaker 1: in Dewey and in Bartlesville, but our food partner is.
Speaker 2: Yes. Absolutely, So the goal with one million meals is
Speaker 2: that we work with local food partners. So, of course
Speaker 2: our vest is located in four states, and each one
Speaker 2: of those communities that we serve, we work with someone
Speaker 2: locally to be able to raise those donations for the
Speaker 2: money to stay in the community in which we serve.
Speaker 2: So if you're making a donation here in Bartlesville or
Speaker 2: in Dewey, it stays right here in local We also
Speaker 2: have a food partner in no Wada. There's a great
Speaker 2: food pantry there called Fishes and Loaves. Yes, and if
Speaker 2: you make a donation in our No Wada branch, the
Speaker 2: money stays right there in no Wata as well.
Speaker 1: Very good, you know, this is such a help to
Speaker 1: a lot of people, and for those of us who
Speaker 1: go about our day in day out and we see
Speaker 1: all my goodness, life's a bit of a struggle. There
Speaker 1: are folks who really know what the word struggle means
Speaker 1: they're missing meals, their kids are missing meals. Sometimes it's
Speaker 1: down to one meal a day or a big decision
Speaker 1: on who's going to eat.
Speaker 2: Absolutely. You know, Missy was here the first time we
Speaker 2: sat down on Community Connection in early May, and one
Speaker 2: of the things that she mentioned was that, you know,
Speaker 2: they aren't getting the donations that they've received previously. They're
Speaker 2: about they're down seventy five percent in their donations and
Speaker 2: so that food shortage is really critical to them right now.
Speaker 2: And we know that here in Oklahoma we're fifth in
Speaker 2: the nation and food insecurities, and so there are a
Speaker 2: lot of people who are trying to make that decision
Speaker 2: do I pay rent, do I buy food? Do I
Speaker 2: pay for prescriptions, or do I buy food? And so
Speaker 2: we want to be able to ease that stress level
Speaker 2: for them so that they don't have to make those decisions.
Speaker 2: They can go and Misty Wishall and her team over
Speaker 2: at Mary Martha can make really good care of them
Speaker 2: and help provide some meals so they don't have to
Speaker 2: make those hard decisions.
Speaker 1: And there are so many people who don't qualify for
Speaker 1: other programs, but they're going through the CRA accident that's
Speaker 1: where Mary Martha, make sure that they don't good safety
Speaker 1: net that we have there and a great partnership we
Speaker 1: have with them housos and lobes over there and no
Speaker 1: Wa they do the same thing. Now, now we've got
Speaker 1: what four states. We have Oklahoma, we have Kansas, we
Speaker 1: have Missouri and Arkansas that we service with the our
Speaker 1: best footprints. Yes, sir, that's a big footprint.
Speaker 2: It is a big footprint. We serve over eight hundred
Speaker 2: thousand households and we just it's a privileged to us
Speaker 2: to be able to operate in our four footprints. And
Speaker 2: we have great customers. We work with great partners. There's
Speaker 2: a couple other people I want to shout out today,
Speaker 2: Tom is. We even work with great small business customers
Speaker 2: here too. And one of the things two of those
Speaker 2: small businesses have partnered with us during this Mary Martha
Speaker 2: or during this fundraising and belt for one million meals.
Speaker 2: A couple of weeks ago, Pops Donuts out on No
Speaker 2: Water Road, all of the proceeds from one of the
Speaker 2: days of their sales that they partnered with us to
Speaker 2: be able to give twenty percent of those proceeds to
Speaker 2: to one million meals. And so, you know, it's so
Speaker 2: awesome the generosity of small business owners. But we want
Speaker 2: to thank Pops for that partnership. It was a couple
Speaker 2: of Wednesdays ago. They again all of the money that
Speaker 2: they raised or that they were able to take in
Speaker 2: that day, twenty percent of that they gave to one
Speaker 2: million meals. So we really appreciate that. The other one
Speaker 2: is Moxie on second, the awesome people, Christy and her team.
Speaker 2: They did an awesome job of Before actually our program started,
Speaker 2: we sold we had some shamrock pins for Saint Patti's
Speaker 2: Day and they put them in their their store and
Speaker 2: asked for donations for us. And so those partnerships are
Speaker 2: so important to us. You know, really the heart of
Speaker 2: a community is the small businesses that are here. And
Speaker 2: so we just want to say thank you to those
Speaker 2: small businesses who partnered along the way with us.
Speaker 1: Man that is great. Maybe they can start a snowball
Speaker 1: effect for next year. That would really be pretty darn cool.
Speaker 1: But right now, thank you very much for what you've
Speaker 1: done small businesses here in town. Now, you mentioned that
Speaker 1: Oklahoma is fifth in food insecurity. Now I would have
Speaker 1: never guessed that. I never would have but it is.
Speaker 1: It's true, and there are a lot of folks who
Speaker 1: might be walking around smiling, Yeah, I'm good, not really.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you know, we're getting close to summer. Kids
Speaker 2: are getting out for school, and you know a lot
Speaker 2: of our schools have free lunch programs and so families
Speaker 2: counted on those free lunches to be able to support
Speaker 2: those those children during the day, and now they're going
Speaker 2: to be at home and they may not have that support.
Speaker 2: So it's really critical that we are able to provide
Speaker 2: those donations so that during the summer, families again there's
Speaker 2: an additional stress there sometimes that maybe we can take
Speaker 2: away and they can have some additional support from some
Speaker 2: of our local food pantries.
Speaker 1: Wow. How long has our Best been doing this? It's
Speaker 1: been a while.
Speaker 2: Yes, this is our fifteenth year anniversary. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 2: very much a passion project for us. I was thinking
Speaker 2: the other day, Tom about the people that are important
Speaker 2: in my life, and I thought about my great grandmother
Speaker 2: and she was a great cook, you know, she was
Speaker 2: I dream about her food.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: She died several years ago, but one of the things
Speaker 2: that the way that she showed love was she just
Speaker 2: invited people to come have a meal, right, And a
Speaker 2: lot of families out there experience that in their life.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that I was thinking about is,
Speaker 2: you know, giving a donation like this to one million
Speaker 2: meals is just that showing of love for people who
Speaker 2: may not be able to offer another people a meal
Speaker 2: in their home, but they can offer them a meal
Speaker 2: to make in their own home and again, and it's
Speaker 2: just a way to show people love, to care about people,
Speaker 2: and to be able to provide that support to those
Speaker 2: in need.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: So I would just you know, encourage people if they
Speaker 2: have like a loved one, that they think about their
Speaker 2: meals that they made years and years and years ago
Speaker 2: that made such an impact on your life. Maybe this
Speaker 2: is a great time to make a donation and be
Speaker 2: able to feed others around you like they fed you.
Speaker 1: You know, we have Mother's Day coming up on Sunday.
Speaker 1: Just imagine your Mama's love. Yes, And when you make
Speaker 1: that donation, you can.
Speaker 2: Do it that way too, absolutely.
Speaker 1: But you know, and the thing is, it's so much
Speaker 1: better to give than receipt. And there are some folks
Speaker 1: who might not understand that. But when you walk away
Speaker 1: after making that donation.
Speaker 2: You're going, yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 1: Somebody's gonna somebody's gonna use this greatly.
Speaker 2: And just as a reminder, you know, one hundred percent
Speaker 2: of your donation goes to Mary Martha. There's no we
Speaker 2: take zero money. We just no administration, no administray. We
Speaker 2: just collect the donations and then we are able to
Speaker 2: be able to give those straight to Mary Martha preach.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is amazing. So fifteen years in doing this
Speaker 1: and you've raised millions of dollars for millions and meals.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that is amazing. Yes, so we've been able to
Speaker 2: provide you know, several meals for people, but we've raised
Speaker 2: over two million dollars in monetary donations in the last
Speaker 2: fifteen years and we want to continue that effort. You know,
Speaker 2: this is just another way we continue continue it and
Speaker 2: we're just really grateful to have the opportunity to, you know,
Speaker 2: help support a great organization like Mary Martha.
Speaker 1: Wow, this is amazing. And again we've got the website
Speaker 1: you can go to and you can get all your
Speaker 1: questions to answered. We have that and you can also
Speaker 1: donate on that website.
Speaker 2: What is it, it's ourvest dot com forward slash million Meals.
Speaker 1: Yes, even I can get there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, but there's lots of information out there, and
Speaker 2: of course you're going to see in the upcoming weeks
Speaker 2: our check presentation as soon as we're able to finish
Speaker 2: out our fundraising, so it won't stop here. You'll be
Speaker 2: able to see that. We'll send it over to the radio.
Speaker 2: So if you are a yes, if you're a listener,
Speaker 2: if you're able to get on their website, you'll see
Speaker 2: all of the fruits of our labor here the last
Speaker 2: few weeks.
Speaker 1: Yes, it's been a lot of hard work, but it's
Speaker 1: been a lot of joyful work.
Speaker 2: It has been, and there's still some great things that
Speaker 2: we're doing. We are accepting. We're doing a chain drive
Speaker 2: right now on our branches. They have some goodie bags
Speaker 2: in the branches for moms. So if you are that
Speaker 2: last minute shopper and you need something for this weekend,
Speaker 2: they have some goodie bags. They're just asking for five
Speaker 2: dollars donations for those. Also, this week is Nurses Appreciation
Speaker 2: Week and Teachers Appreciation Week. We appreciate all three absolutely,
Speaker 2: and so if you need you know, if you have
Speaker 2: a nurse in your life or a teacher who you
Speaker 2: want to be able to spoil a little bit. You
Speaker 2: can use those gift bags for something like that. I'm
Speaker 2: using those today for some daycare workers that we have
Speaker 2: that support our family. And so just to say, hey,
Speaker 2: you know, we appreciate you, we're thinking about you, and
Speaker 2: you're making a great donation to a great cost.
Speaker 1: It's great all the way around Whitney doing that. We've
Speaker 1: got a couple of locations here in town and and Dewey.
Speaker 1: Tell folks where you can find it.
Speaker 2: Sure, we're located here in Bartlesville in our downtown location
Speaker 2: right off Frank Phillips Boulevard. We're located at our Colonial location,
Speaker 2: which is off seventy five south of town, and then
Speaker 2: of course our east side location is off Adam's Boulevard
Speaker 2: across from Walmart, and then Dewey is right up seventy five.
Speaker 2: Any of those locations that are easiest for you to
Speaker 2: get to, we'd be happy to see you. Thank you
Speaker 2: for your donation, and you can absolutely pick up one
Speaker 2: of those goodie bags at any of those locations.
Speaker 1: Well, that is nice to know. Wait, do you thank
Speaker 1: you and have a great Mother's Day.
Speaker 2: Thank you appreciate that.
Speaker 1: And I hope to see you here real soon again,
Speaker 1: and we're going to be looking forward to that check
Speaker 1: presentation as well.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, that's gonna be great.
Speaker 1: All right, Thank you folks you've been watching and listening
Speaker 1: to are