Guests: Stephanie Walsh (Dairy Farmers of America), Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (Cooler Management), Mark Inkrott (Owner of Cooler Management) and co-host: Charlie Benz Joining us at the table to discuss what their organizations are doing to make significant impacts on food security and hunger are Stephanie Walsh, Melissa Malcolm-Cullison and Mark Inkrott.
Guests: Stephanie Walsh (Dairy Farmers of America), Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (Cooler Management), Mark Inkrott (Owner of Cooler Management) and co-host: Charlie Benz
Joining us at the table to discuss what their organizations are doing to make significant impacts on food security and hunger are Stephanie Walsh, Melissa Malcolm-Cullison and Mark Inkrott.
Stephanie Walsh, Director of Industry and Community Affairs for DFA (Dairy Farmers of America) highlights their Farmers Feeding Families Fund, ensuring community members receive the dairy products they need. 1:08
Vice President for Cooler Management, Melissa Malcolm-Cullison also joined the evening discussion, sharing her teams’ experience building infrastructure for food banks and food pantries across the country. 2:20
Co-Founder of the UpField Group and Owner of Cooler Management, Mark Inkrott also joined in on the discussion. For his entire career after sports, Inkrott noted that he’s been involved in supply chain work with both various brands and farmers alike. Since acquiring Cooler Management a few years ago, they have been specializing in cold storage ever since. 3:44
Analyzing the impacts COVID-19 had on the supply chain, Melissa talked about her connection with Charlie Benz of Balchem early in the pandemic. Adding that she saw wasted food due to the influx of food donations during that time, caused by a shortage in refrigerator space. 10:30
After brainstorming solutions with Charlie, Melissa said they realized infrastructure was the key to storing food donations safely to get them to families in need. Today, she added she is proud of the program because it offered a solution for nutritious foods like dairy to be donated without spoiling. 14:37
Stephanie said in support of food insecurity concerns, the DFA Cares Foundation offers education and scholarships to students studying agriculture. Additionally, she added that in 2022 the foundation provided 53 scholarships through the program. 15:22
Bringing the Cooler Management team and DFA together, Stephanie added in 2020 the two established a partnership to help donate coolers across the country and dairy products to local food pantries. 19:15
Melissa noted most people usually think about donating food to food pantries, but not dairy products or even refrigeration needs until programs like Cooler Management or Kooler Kids (from Balchem) begin. 30:26
To date, Mark said they have placed over 3,000 pieces of equipment into food pantries across the country. As for the Cooler Management team, they work with various retailers on finding adequate coolers for food banks and food pantries. 38:41
Healthy food equals a healthy family, Mark stated, adding that’s why investing 90 million dollars into 30,000 coolers for food pantries across the country just makes sense and keeps the team motivated. 48:09
It’s September Hunger Action month and so far Stephanie said the Farmers Feeding Families Fund has raised more than $950,000. Their goal is to raise the last $50,000. If anyone is called to help, she encourages everyone to make sure their own fridge is full of dairy products and also asks people to volunteer at their local food pantry. 57:50
Donations for the DFA Farmers Feeding Families Fund can happen at DFA.
Wrapping up, Mark reflected saying we have an influx of food going into the system, but without proper infrastructure and foundation, it will go to waste. He said if the industry does something about the 30,000 coolers, in 10 years we won’t have to think about refrigeration.1:13:02
Be a part of feeding the hungry and bringing the benefits of fresh dairy, produce and meat to those in need. Contact Your Balchem Representative or email anh.marketing@balchem.com to learn more.
Learn more about these great programs:
https://www.coolermanagement.com/
https://balchem.com/animal-nutrition-health/social-responsibility/kooler-kids-program/
https://www.dfamilk.com/our-commitment/dfa-cares
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Scott Sorrell (00:00:08):
Good evening everyone. And welcome to the real science exchange. In the podcast, we're leading scientists and industry professionals who meet over a few drinks to discuss the latest ideas and trends in animal nutrition. Hi, I'm Scott Sorrell. What if your host here tonight at the real science exchange tonight's conversation will be a little bit different from our typical podcast, but I think you're gonna find it interesting and enlightening instead of diving into research projects and dissecting the latest science we're gonna discuss one of the most pressing issues affecting our communities and our country. And that would be hunger and food insecurity as agriculturalists we're in a very unique position to tackle this issue and to provide solutions. And tonight we have brought together some of the players that have already been making a big impact on this issue. But before we get started with talking about what your organizations are doing, what I'd like to do is go around the table and have each of you tell us a little bit of personal history and what brought you to the table tonight. And I'm gonna start with you, Stephanie. What brought you to the exchange today?
Stephanie Walsh (00:01:08):
Well, my name is Stephanie Walsh and I work for dairy farmers of America, which is a national farmer-owned dairy cooperative working for about 11,500 dairy farmers across the country. Starting at the beginning of the pandemic. And I'll get a little bit deeper into the story later. One of our producers gave us a hundred thousand dollars to start what we're calling our farmers, feeding families fund. He was moved by the images of his community members waiting in long lines in their cars and on foot for food assistance. And he wanted to ensure that those community members are, and will continue to get the dairy that they most desperately need. So thank you so much for having me on today. You're
Scott Sorrell (00:01:53):
Very welcome. Stephanie, looking forward to your story tonight before we move on, what's in your glass tonight?
Stephanie Walsh (00:01:59):
Oh, I am drinking a maple latte that I made by myself. I got a milk frother for Christmas, which is the best dairy gift. You can give someone, so, oh, we'll be having a, a little bit of a latte today.
Scott Sorrell (00:02:14):
Very nice next, Melissa, please share a little bit about your background and then what are you drinking tonight as well.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:02:20):
Great. Hey Scott. Hey everyone. Thanks so much for having me. I sure appreciate it. My name is Melissa Cullison and I'm VP of corporate partnerships for cooler management. And how I got here is, is kind of a whirlwind with all the players that are on the phone today, but I just came from the got milk campaign several months ago. And while at the campaign we were reaching or excuse me, we were spending, you know, multiple years working with feeding America to get more fresh dairy, particularly milk into food banks across the country. However, when we were placing all those fresh milk gallons, unfortunately, there wasn't enough refrigeration to take it in. And so you know, sand's pandemic, you know, all that happening. You know, we were been, we've been building infrastructure for food banks and food pantries across the country. And I started my position at cooler management about nine months ago, and now I'm really being able to make an impact on not only getting more fresh items to food banks, but also making sure that they're safe and, and properly delivered to their constituents.
Scott Sorrell (00:03:31):
All right. Thank you, Melissa. And what were you drinking tonight? Oh,
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:03:35):
And I've got fresh chocolate milk that I just made at the house. All
Scott Sorrell (00:03:38):
Right. Cool. Very good. And I see you brought a guest with you. Mark, what brought you to the exchange tonight?
Mark Inkrott (00:03:44):
Yeah. Hi Scott. Hi everyone. I'm marking Euro. Co-Founder of the upfield group. We're a private investment and consulting firm specializing in the ag and food space and also managing partner and fill owner of food management. You know, I do what Melissa tells me to do. he told me to come to your podcast, but you know, in, in all, in all seriousness, we've been my entire career. I've been in the farm-to-table supply chain working with brands and working with farmers. That's my background. It's been in dairy, working at DMI for several years and even at the Midea, for several years before that. And we saw a need for infrastructure really to bring fresh food to, to the people who need it. And so cooler management specializes in cold storage and we acquired the company two years ago and that's what we're doing today
Scott Sorrell (00:04:43):
And very well
Mark Inkrott (00:04:44):
I'm drinking my fair-life chocolate kinds of milk.
Scott Sorrell (00:04:48):
Excellent. So you said you've been in farm-to-table most of your career. That's exactly right. You had a cup of coffee in the NFL. Would you mind telling us a little bit about that? Yeah,
Mark Inkrott (00:04:58):
I, I did. I somehow found my way from the university of Finley and division two school in Ohio. Many years ago 2002, I was a free agent with the Panthers in Carolina, and 2003, and 2004, I was with the giants in New York. And, I played a year in Europe back when the NFL Europe league was going, which by the way was the best experience of my life. Most people, you know, when you're, when you play in the NFL, people ask you that question, you know, what was it like playing in the NFL? It was great. It was a, you know, it was a kid's dream come true, but to be a 24-year-old and traveling the world, playing football you know, it, it would just be a blessing for sure.
Scott Sorrell (00:05:43):
Yeah,
Mark Inkrott (00:05:43):
Very, I would've done it for free and they paid me to do it. Scott,
Scott Sorrell (00:05:46):
I wish you
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:05:47):
Right now, mark, working for you.
Mark Inkrott (00:05:52):
okay.
Scott Sorrell (00:05:55):
Yeah. And finally, I need to welcome my co-host for tonight's conversation. Charlie Bens Charlie's beaches director of room its sales, but he's also played a huge role in baches cooler kids program. And we'll discuss that a little bit more tonight, but Charlie, first, gives us a little bit about your background and what's your beverage of choice tonight.
Charlie Benz (00:06:15):
Thanks, Scott. I've been with B for a little over five years. I've been in the industry either on the dairy side or on the animal health side, my whole career. So I'm enjoying, you know, the fact that B has not just our animal health division, but we have a human health division that also runs parallel on some of the things we do. So that's kind of a, I'm drinking some premier protein. We enjoy this at the house. Plus I use it a lot when I'm on the phone for a quick break when I'm not necessarily getting lunch some days. And this one, actually, we just found also talks about immune health and support. So I'm not allowed to be coached by my sister company. I'm all allowed to say that a major colon company that's probably on this show is supplying the colon, but I wouldn't be drinking it if I didn't trust the supplier so it's all good.
Scott Sorrell (00:07:13):
Yeah. Thank you, Charlie. Well, I'll tell you I'm drinking, I'm drinking Fairlife as well. Mark might have omega-three fatty acids in it, which supposedly helps the brain. I need that. And I'm also having it because Dr. Mike McCluskey, he's been on the podcast a couple of times. So in honor of him a great product, I am drinking it from a wine glass. So
Speaker 6 (00:07:35):
Tonight's podcast stories are brought to you by reassured precision release. Coline reassure is the most researched, encapsulated Coline on the market today consistently delivering results to your transition cows of higher peak milk reduced metabolic disorders. And even in utero benefits to her calf, leading to growth and health improvements, visit bache.com to learn more.
Scott Sorrell (00:07:57):
Yeah, guys, wanna welcome everybody here and let's start with a toast to the ag industry. Cheers,
Charlie Benz (00:08:02):
Cheers.
Scott Sorrell (00:08:07):
So kind of to get us started tonight. I wanna take us back to March of 2020. The pandemic was just hitting and the impact was being felt across the country and around the world, farmers were dumping milk. If you were a call while store refrigerators were empty, meat cases were bare people, especially those in disadvantaged communities were in jeopardy of not having food available and all the while farmers were desperately searching for ways to get their animals to market. So if you kind of put yourself in those times, you know, it was kind of, kind of bizarre times. And, and Charlie, I remember still the day that our boss came to us Jonathan Griffin and, and he got us together and said, gentlemen, what, what can we do? And he challenged us to find, you know, ways that we, as a company could, could help intervene and, and help get food to people.
Scott Sorrell (00:08:53):
And so Melissa, it was during those times when you know, when we first met and you know, I must say over the last couple of years, you've become one of my favorite humans. Right. You know, it's kind of hard to remember what it was like back then, but, you know, we were all locked in our houses. We were communicating over zoom a little bit desperate for human interaction. And we had multiple meetings with you as you were teaching Charlie and me about the needs, and we're coming up with ideas. How can we help? And I just remember coming away you know, from those meetings being very energized because of your bubbly personality and, you know, your, your can-do attitude. So anyway, you've been a joy to work with. You've been a great team member and I wanna thank you for that. Why don't you get us started talking a little bit about the need for refrigeration?
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:09:42):
Well, golly, Scott you're, you know, just kind of bringing me into tears, and then I have to talk on the podcast. But thank you so much. You know, it, it was exactly how you set it up. I end up, you know, connecting with you and Charlie. In the beginning, we got a connection through IDFA international dairy foods. And we had seen that the U S D was putting together all of these food programs. We knew that there was an SL of donations coming in where it was a hundred million dollars from Jeff Bezos, or, you know, one of the other carriers were, were donating so much product because the need from the pandemic was enormous as, as I think we've all looked and seen it on TV and newspapers and on the internet of just as Stephanie mentioned earlier, just, you know trails and miles of cars wrapped around the food banks and the food banks were struggling at that point, they're getting, you know, $4 billion worth of food that was dumped on them.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:10:46):
And, and it wasn't that, you know, it was anybody's fault, but it was the issue that you know, there was pandemic, people were getting sick. There was a lack of volunteers at the food banks, and there was ample refrigeration to take in all of these donations that were coming in. And so a lot of those donations that were starting to come in early in the pandemic, they were getting wasted and it honestly tore me apart. And, and you know, some of our early conversations Scott with you and Charlie was, what are we gonna do? How do we fix it, what's coming? And how do we prepare? And, you know, you and I, and Charlie spent mornings together and weekends and nights figuring like how can we make something work? And our kind of having some privy to information from U S D a and in, in my role at the time of just knowing what was coming through, all the supply chain and all of our milk processors at the times, whether it was, you know, our partners at dairy farmers of America or, or one of our other processor partners, knowing that they, they were donating so much product, how do we make sure that product is delivered to that end user, to that neighbor end need?
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:12:00):
And it's a safe product. That's not gonna make anybody sick, but you know, it's properly refrigerated through the cold chain storage. And it's getting to those families who need it. And you know, that's when you guys started the cooler kids program, I was in the background. And so I don't wanna take any credit other than telling you do not donate food, let's donate refrigeration. This is what's needed to keep all that food safe and get it from being dumped. And, nobody wanted that to happen, right? Everybody had the best intentions during a pandemic, but we were understaffed and we, the infrastructure just wasn't there. And so, you know, knowing billions of dollars, of food, was coming in, we knew that we needed to kind of change our efforts to say, okay, we don't wanna waste a drop of milk.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:12:53):
We don't wanna drop waste any of that fresh food. How do we fix the system to start getting some infrastructure established and, you know, hence our collaboration happened? And, you know, we really kind of just moved into action quickly and you guys took it internally and started the cooler kids program. And I'm so proud of the program where it's gone today because just the comments that we receive from placing some of the refrigeration units right now, people are just overwhelmed with gratefulness and understanding that they don't have to turn down fresh foods anymore. They don't have to turn down fresh dairy and fresh gallons of milk. They can take them store them safely and get them to families in need.
Scott Sorrell (00:13:40):
Hmm. You know, one of the things I learned is that the need is probably direr in, the country locations than maybe the city locations. Can you maybe talk a bit about that?
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:13:50):
Sure. And I would also ask, you know some of my partners on the phone to speak to it as well. But there's a, there's a, there's a huge focus right now on reaching some of those rural areas and inner city areas during a pandemic. It was like, whoever we can help, we, we can get, you know, we we'll get to, but in some of the programs that we've started with this team and with also Stephanie, who's on the line with DFA cares, it is, there's a focus on rural areas. There's a focus on you know, some of those smaller food pantries that don't get all the attention, they don't get the big fundraising and that's such a big deal, right? Because those smaller pantries are feeding so many smaller, rural-focused families. And those families knew the nutrition of dairy as well.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:14:37):
And dairy is such a powerhouse of just getting my dairy pedestal for a second. But just thinking about getting a glass of milk in kids, hands in the morning, that is the difference between learning at school and not, you know, them not being jittery and being able to make it through the class and pay attention because they're not hungry. And that is what's fueled my passion for hunger relief and infrastructure relief, knowing that to get those very nutrient-dense foods including dairy, to kids and families, that infrastructure has to be there.
Scott Sorrell (00:15:08):
Yeah. Stephanie that's a nice segue that Melissa gave us there. Can you talk a little bit about some of the programs that DFA has in place?
Stephanie Walsh (00:15:17):
Sure. so I'm gonna talk about our DFA cares foundation, which is our 5 0 1 C three organization that has been at our cooperative for several years. So along with this topic, we have a lot of programs that support the food insecure. But we do a couple of other things that I'll get into. And then we can circle back to the farmer's feeding families fund. So the DFA cares foundation also offers education and scholarship to those students that are studying agriculture and things that can support dairy. In 2022, the DFA cares foundation provided 53 students with diverse backgrounds, with scholarships for their higher education. And this year we made an effort to try to hit some of the unconventional channels. As you may know, the amount of farm kids decreases every year, and the amount of opportunities supporting agriculture grows.
Stephanie Walsh (00:16:18):
So we wanna hear from anyone interested, if they're communications professional, an attorney, what have you you don't have to grow up on a farm to work for DFA. And we're so excited to support these students. And we continue to grow the program every year. We also have a disaster relief response arm of the program. And we find this, as part of our community's core value. This is just the right thing to do. I'm not sure if I know there are folks from Wisconsin and other dairy states, but if there's a barn fire, usually the farmers down the road are there before the emergency vehicles pick up the cows and make sure they get milked. So this is in our DNA, this is what we do. And in 2022, we donated $37,000 to 16 families impacted by tornadoes, snow, or fires.
Stephanie Walsh (00:17:13):
We, you can add floods. I didn't have the statistics from that because those just occurred in, in Kentucky. We donated 24,000 cans of sport shake, which is a shelf-stable low-fat flavored milk product to those impacted by tornadoes. And we also sent $50,000 in partnership with the American red cross and a convoy of hope to Ukrainian refugees. So we like to have nimbleness in this program because we never know what the next disaster will be, be it a winter storm in Texas or a global pandemic. And so, as I mentioned before at the start of the pandemic, one of our family farm owners from the Southwest region moved by the images of his community members, standing in long lines for food assistance, gave us a hundred thousand dollars to start the farmer's feeding families fund.
Stephanie Walsh (00:18:10):
So we can help food banks pivot and be able to continue to serve dairy to their clients in need. So let's go back to how Scott set us up at the beginning of the pandemic. And one thing that impacted the dairy industry, Scott, you mentioned farmers had to dump milk and it wasn't that we didn't have food and that we didn't want to get it to the emergency food network. But what happened was our marketing realities completely shifted. A lot of our products do go to food service. So if you think about, you know, three-pound packages of sour cream those customers as restaurants started to close canceled orders, and we were left with raw unprocessed milk there. So we desperately tried to do the best we could to come up with partnerships to try to get that raw milk processed.
Stephanie Walsh (00:19:04):
And we were successful in that, but then through putting so much donated milk into the emergency food network, we quickly realized that maybe they didn't need the milk and maybe what they needed was fridges. And so we started the refrigeration donation program in late 2020 we've since then established a partnership with cooler management to be our exclusive supplier of those coolers. And we've donated coolers across the country and we've supported food banks that are in Houston, for example, to the last mile of the food pantry in Burville Kentucky. So we are super proud and excited that through this program, our farmers and our members, our farmers, and our staff nominate their local food pantries. And so we're hitting the communities where our plants are located, which are typically urban areas, as well as where our dairy farmers are located, which are typically very rural.
Mark Inkrott (00:20:05):
I mean, Stephanie you're completely right, right? I mean, DFA, they, they put their money where their mouth is. They're not just talking about it, they're doing it. And just to put a little data behind it, there are over 60,000 plus food pantries in the feeding American network alone, less than 10% of them right now have adequate refrigeration and cold storage. Wow. So if you just look at the places where people are going to get food, there's, a glaring reality that there's a lack of infrastructure. And, and of those 10, you know, of those 60,000, you know, 10, 10%, no adequate refrigeration, well, what can we do about it, right? And it's those programs that we're putting in place, but we took it a step further at clear management. We did the pack out. So we've identified some refrigeration. We identified some cold storage solutions. And if we just put refrigeration in cold storage in 50% of those 60,000, which is a big number it's above yeah.
Mark Inkrott (00:21:05):
90 million. But if you look at government spending 90 million is a very small number, but if we put 90 million into the charitable food system, we would be able to provide a billion pounds of incremental milk sales. And, and that's a real number, cuz we have a goal in the dairy industry to displace, you know, fluid milk, right? And if we put it into the charitable food system, we could do it. And, and we've done that research. We've, we've got the data that supports it. Of course, when you get into the details and you put a, you know, you put a cooler into a sweet pantry who used to say, it's gonna be stacked, you know, head to toe with gallons of milk. But if there was a detailed program in place where we had oversight and we had access, to fluid milk, and we put it top to bottom on those shelves, we could prove that there are a billion pounds of incremental displacement available to us.
Mark Inkrott (00:22:02):
And so, you know, I'm in this business because of the data, but you know, there are personal stories as well. You know, I was a substitute teacher. You mentioned the NFL before I started my professional career, two things. I was a professional softball player for Coors light, silver bullets, $65 a week, and a case of Coors light. You know, you're waiting for the phone to ring and you're hoping to get back into the NFL phone didn't ring. So I ended up getting into the dairy industry and working for ADA mid-east here in Ohio for Scott Higgins, June and, Jenny, and the team. But you know, you learn really what's going on boots on the ground. And you know, we've seen it in the, in the ump. We've seen, you know, the charitable food system kind of come and go, but I truly believe there is a business case for charitable food system fluid milk displacement, because the number one, as we all know on the phone and probably those listening, the number one requested food item in the food bank is, is dairy it's milk, right? It's nutrient dense. It provides for the family, you know, so,
Scott Sorrell (00:23:15):
And yet 90% of the people that the the the the pantries don't have milk, right? Because they don't have refrigeration. They don't, that's amazing. And
Mark Inkrott (00:23:23):
It's a big reason why we, you know, why we acquired cooler management. Like we see this, we see this opportunity from a business case. We see this as a social opportunity. We see this as a business opportunity and, you know, Melissa will tell you, my, my heart's with the dairy farmers, the best people I've ever met my entire life are, are dairy farmers. Right? They're the salt of the earth. They've taught me more lessons about business and life than, you know, any other group of people that I've met, including football coaches. Right. There's and the thing is, there's a lot of parallels there, resiliency, discipline, hard work. You know, there's a lot of parallels there, but it, it it's opportunistic. Right. And, and I'm, I thank you again for, for bringing us on the podcast, because if we realize that there is an opportunity to displace a billion pounds of milk over the next five years in the charitable food system, I think more people like Stephanie and her team at DFA will see, you know, I mean, there's no surprise, you know, it is not a secret that fluid milk sales have been declining for forever, but why not do the, why not do something good with fluid milk, right.
Mark Inkrott (00:24:31):
Yeah. And some people are asking for it. Some people need it. And the U S D is buying it. It's not a donation. The U S D is purchasing fluid milk for the charitable food system. And I think one of the misnomers about the charitable food system is that this is a giveaway. This is devaluing the value of fluid milk. That's not the case. We have a government that's purchasing fluid milk and giving it to people who are asking for it and need it, and they're paying for it. And I would love for that message to, and Melissa can speak this way more eloquently than I can, but I would love for, that message to be heard, by our audience.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:25:14):
Yes. I think I think that's a good point. And, and two, two points to make on that mark, you know, the U S D I does buy a, a, you know, a couple of million gallons of fluid milk a year, but it's just not enough. It could be more than they're setting to food banks and, and also in those food pantries, but it is that infrastructure that all the food pantries cannot take that in. Right. If they don't have the refrigeration, if they don't have the staffing, if, if supply, you know, chain, isn't their cold supply chain, isn't there, then reaching those rural locations out, you know, in in the country, just isn't going to work. Even if that food bank does get that, those gallons of milk. And so, you know what I wanted to say, and Steph, I don't wanna steal any of your thunder is DFA cares, does an amazing job of trying to kick that off for themselves. And Stephanie, maybe you wanna talk a little bit about the grant that you also offer with the refrigeration because that's impactful as well is, you know, DFA cares has taken it one step further and I'll let Stephanie talk to this, but they, they help place the refrigeration just like cooler kids do, but they offer a grant as well. To, ensure that nutrition is making it to all those food pantries that they're placing refrigeration,
Scott Sorrell (00:26:34):
Melissa, before we kick it over to Stephanie, you know, we've talked a little bit about cooler kids, but we've never really, we haven't talked about what the heck is cooler kids in. So I I'd like to get, get Charlie to come on and just real quick, Charlie, what in the world is cooler kids? What's that about?
Charlie Benz (00:26:48):
So we started with a small amount of grant from Scott to support refrigeration. And,
Scott Sorrell (00:26:56):
And that was a BA grant, right?
Charlie Benz (00:26:58):
That was a BA grant. And to make it go further, the idea is we'd find partners who are customers usually to match us and so fast forward. And it's kind of the way I'm seeing it's, it's making me smile. But the whole idea was to get synergy going and create some noise, or create an opportunity for people to connect in these local communities and be part of this. And so once we get a partner committing, then they look at, can they also do a matching program for employee donations and B didn't have matching in the pro program itself. It was just about to launch when this hit now cooler kids is one of the matching opportunities for employees, you know, to match donations in cash, but also there's an opportunity for service hours. And that's been to me, a lot of the spin from this has been when a local community and one of our partners work with a pantry, the spinoff of that community, being aware of the opportunity and seeing possibilities and going further, that's been the take home.
Charlie Benz (00:28:06):
And it's a little bit like this call or this podcast where we found some great partners that we never even knew about, or never knew these people before this happened. But now we're working on projects together. We're putting leads back and forth. And for a lot of the people that participate, it's an unexpected experience. That's very positive. An example is one of the guys who came to the ribbon cutting when we started their fridge up and his plant was less than a mile away from this location. And he goes, almost shame to say, I've driven past this for almost 15 years. I never knew it was here. And he goes, I'm a hundred percent sure that some employees have family members that are utilizing this. And we never even knew it was here and could support it. But every time, we do one of these, we learn different pieces, or you get very passionate people.
Charlie Benz (00:29:04):
Like one of our team members, Eric in Ohio, he took it as a personal affront that kids didn't have enough milk. And so he ended up taking what was seed money for one location, got enough seed money locally for three plus supporting him long term. Plus when he went back the other week, just to check in, got that gratification and good feeling that there are certain dairy companies that at the end of their root drop off what's left over. So they don't have to throw it away. And he goes, they had buttermilk, they had 2%, they had chocolate milk, they had sour cream, they had eggs and they had bacon all in the refrigerated section. And the pantry would never have that. Had they not had the opportunity, you know? And, again, it lives on with some of the parents used as an opportunity to bring their kids in from Scouts or baseball teams or any type of fundraising. And they go in and they have a matching program. So if the kids work so many hours at the food pantry or at, you know, breaking down these bulk items as they come in, you know, people will match that. So there's, it's been a really good way for a lot of people to connect and work with their local communities. And maybe they didn't know about it, or didn't realize there's an opportunity to do things other than donating a little bit of money.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:30:26):
And I think that is kind of the epiphany that most people have, right? It's like, oh, I don't think about just buying gallons of milk or yogurt and donating it to my local food pantry. Right. People just don't think that way. They also don't think about donating refrigeration units until some of these programs have come along and shine a light on what's possible. If you do, you know, think about infrastructure and how to get it to, to those people who, who don't necessarily get it. And, you know, one of the stories I wanna share is just really briefly, but during the pandemic is my team, my previous position would always tease me that I, I was buying up refrigeration and I was sending it to food banks. And that was like what I was working on. I'm like, well, little, do you know that you know, I was on the phone with Scott and Charlie and, you know, making this kind of plans, but the letters that we would see coming in from some of the constituents who were receiving the dairy boxes during the pandemic, under the farmers to family food boxes.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:31:30):
And I know that was an exhaustive effort on the U S D A's part and our food bank partners. And but the gratitude that we saw with the dairy boxes, the people, we had heard food from all of the food banks across the country and pantries that people would stand in line for hours for those dairy boxes. Sometimes, maybe not so much some of the other boxes and nothing against those other commodities, but people just, they, it was a luxury for them. And think there were things in there that maybe some of the processors would, would be, you know, generous to donate like chocolate milk. And when you think about giving your kids something that maybe is, is a higher priced item than regular white milk, chocolate milk with such a luxury or, or sour cream dip that they could have with their vegetables or, or meats.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:32:21):
I mean, it just, you think about the things that your family gets to enjoy daily and what, what I have a little guy and, and what we, we get, give him, and, you know, hearing these stories of people being able to now have those other products. It was just, it tours us apart, to be honest. And it fuels the passion that we have at cooler management for saying everybody deserves fresh foods. And we are such a dairy, you know, you know, in our roots here at cooler management, we are such dairy, you know, champions and coming from that milk background and wanting kids to have access to milk and treats like chocolate milk because we know that when kids you know, have access to milk, they have fewer broken bones, they have healthier teeth, you know, it's calcium, vitamin D protein.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:33:10):
You know, it's like all those great things in a glass. And so I know, like for us at cooler management, we're never gonna stop until we get all those refrigeration units and whatever we need to do for mobile units or walk-ins, whatever it is to make sure that all the food banks, all the food pantry schools have that infrastructure because dairy is such an important piece of overall growth and nutrition that you know, we're never gonna give up until, until it happens. And if that means, you know, working with all of our partners, like the teams that are on the phone to create these programs you know, our processors like dairy farmers of America or the USDA is to help shine a light on freshest, deserved by everyone. And there has to be some equality with the foods that we are given, that we get to enjoy, that everyone should get to enjoy to nourish their bodies.
Scott Sorrell (00:34:05):
Stephanie, I cut you off before getting ready to tell us about that program, but I know that you know, the cool kid's programs participated in that we put coolers in place and DFA puts milk in those coolers. Right. And an empty cooler does snow. Good. So what, why don't you talk a little bit about that program?
Stephanie Walsh (00:34:23):
So Scott you're right. We quote unquote, fill the fridges that are placed through the cooler kids partnership. But we're not exactly doing that with physical milk product donations. So going back to the start of the pandemic, you know, with some of the conversations that you folks had with Melissa, we all sat around these tables, both virtual tables, I guess, and tried to figure out what the food banks needed. And we thought we had it figured out and I'm a little embarrassed for how long it took me to say, well, why don't we just ask them what they need? And, since then we have completely shifted our thinking here. So the last thing that we wanted to do by donating dairy products, which are perishable to an emergency food provider was burdened them. So instead, what we're doing is, is, providing funding for the purchase of dairy products.
Stephanie Walsh (00:35:17):
We say, please continue to procure your products the way that you have through the channels that you have. Cuz the last thing we wanted to do, knowing that the entire dairy industry was facing an uphill battle with marketing conditions was to disadvantage somebody else in our space. And we also wanted to give the food pantries flexibility and the types of items that they provide their clients. We know that U S D a, like Melissa mentioned the farmers to family's food box program was wonderful and needed, but it was out of the ordinary and nobody knew how to deal with it and how it displaced the other foods that are available within the network. So we told them, here are your funding purchase dairy products, if it's from a cow and it's a dairy product, we're happy and we've received such great feedback and photos from our pantries that we've supported. One pantry short sort of sheepishly came and asked if it would be okay for them to buy ice cream for the student's last day of school. And we said. And I'm gonna get a little tear choked up but Melissa is correct. This matters. And what we're doing here is very important and it's a quality of life issue. It's an equity issue. And if you can't have cheese, on your pizza. Then, then what kind of American child are you?
Scott Sorrell (00:36:44):
Yeah. Excellent story. Melissa, you were talking before about some of the different options you have in terms of refrigeration. And I'm, I'm thinking back to when I first started learning about this, that when we talk about pantries, we're usually talking about a basement in a church, right? And, and, you know, maybe they have some old refrigerators that somebody threw away and maybe they work and maybe they don't but talk about some of the different kinds of units that you have and, and how they're intended to be used. Maybe a little bit about, talk about the pantries, the banks, which are different than that. And then and, and then maybe we'll have a mark or somebody whoever would like to talk about those mobile units. I find those to be very interesting. Talk a little bit about those.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:37:27):
Yeah. And I was marked, I'm wondering if you wanna talk first about how we got the market on the food side by rescuing the refrigeration units and sending them to food banks and food pantries?
Mark Inkrott (00:37:41):
Sure. So cooler management is a turnkey cold storage solutions company. That's, that's what we do from the beginning of the process to the decommissioning and donation to a food bank. If that's what ultimately happens to a piece of cold storage equipment in the field cooler management's sole purpose is to provide, you know, those cold storage solutions. So everything from procurement to graphics, to installation, electrical work even service and maintenance warranty management. And then we look at, you know, at the back half of that particular piece of equipment's life doesn't make sense when some of our retail partners, you know, we work with, you know, retail, CPG companies. They may go in a different direction and they're gonna merchandise a different product, but they're in, you know, a hundred stores or 500 stores across the country. We can do some work on that and get it into a food bank.
Mark Inkrott (00:38:41):
And we've put over 3000 pieces of equipment into food pantries across the country to date, which is a drop in the bucket that makes no impact, but it's doing something right. But we did, we got into doing that. And feeding America took note of, our social equity endeavors. They saw what we were doing on the decommissioning before that thing went to, you know, the final resting state for it. We could you know, do some improvements. We could do some service, we could do a little bit of maintenance and we could get another two, three years out of it. And, that means something right? And I won't take credit for that. That's us, that's our previous owner. He saw that as an opportunity cuz he is got a big heart. And I think that runs through the entire company here at cooler management. It's one of the things I love the most about our team is that we do have this mindset that we can help and that we can provide access. But that's what cooler management does is we help retail, CPG brands secondary and tertiary retail locations market their products create a point of sale point of a sale experience for consumers looking for, you know, dairy for whatever it is that they're looking for in the stores, rather than shopping their perimeter. They can, you know, find their spot in the store
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:40:14):
And then mark down me.
Mark Inkrott (00:40:16):
Yeah.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:40:18):
And I told him about this whole world of, you know, food banks and food pantries. And he, he, you know, here he knew what was happening and you know, he's living through the pandemic and, and he bought cooler management and you know, there, this is the side of the business for the CPG side. But we didn't have a hunger relief side at cooler management yet. And that's why mark brought me on board is really to lead that and kind of take both of our visions that we, that we share about hunger relief and food equity. And we, we put together this campaign it's called fresh, has no boundaries. And it's all about delivering those fresh foods to families that need them most. And, most of that effort is to roll populations or any InnerCity populations. And you know, Margaret, I wanna steal any of your thunder and you know, how, how we work here on the operations side, but it, it, it's not easy to deliver a refrigeration unit down a flight or two upstairs in a church basement in, in pantries across the country.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:41:27):
And, and that's what, what happens, you know, whether we're delivering to a school or we're delivering to a, a pantry and Charlie, I know you have some ID, some good stories to tell on, on these too, but so do we and living through this and just learning kind of on the refrigeration side, I thought, mm, you know, how easy is it? It's probably pretty easy just to go online and order a refrigeration unit and it's delivered and all done. Like what does this cooler management company do? And when I found out more and I started kind of talking to some of our partners and say, yeah we can't just call up a refrigeration company and, and have them deliver a refrigeration unit, cuz then it sits outside our school or outside of our food bank. And it never goes down that flight to sta stairs and they never coordinate with the volunteers.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:42:15):
And we don't know if it's working or if there's an issue with the installation. And even a brand new unit may show up and it's not working, right? Those coils don't work. The fans don't work, the temperature isn't being held and the mark solves this. And you know, that's, that's kind of our core with our operations team is to say, we're not gonna do that. We are not gonna do that. And our team tries to take care of that whole process to make sure we're not calling Stephanie and Charlie and Scott, you know, all hours of the day saying, Hey, that refrigeration unit you delivered or you sent to us doesn't work, right? We try and take care of that for the team and make sure that the pantry gets up and running as quickly as possible. With, with no fuss, you know, they have so much to work on at each of these pantry and food bank locations.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:43:06):
They're worried about volunteers. They're worried about food donations. They're worried about money. They're worried about helping these families make ends meet, right? Are the families gonna afford rent or gas or groceries or, or some other thing where I've seen our food banks and food pantries step up in so many different ways, whether it's mental healthcare or it is things like, Hey, we, we blew a tire, a family blew or blew their attire this week and they can't get to work if they don't have that tire and they're giving them the money for that tire? Right. And so if we can take one more thing off of their plate at the food pantry level and say, don't worry about it, your refrigeration unit's coming. You just have to be there to accept it. You don't have to worry about labor or trying to get it down the steps yourselves and figure out if it's working that, then we've done our job here at Kohl management.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:43:59):
We're trying to try, to make that process easy. And we're proud of it because it's working, it's successful, and the gratitude that we get. And I don't want you to think that we take credit for, it because we certainly push it back to, our partners at B and DFA care, but they're just overwhelmingly grateful for how easy that process is. And then when they also get a check for filling the fridge with dairy, they're like we've won the lottery. There's no way that you've chosen our pantry for a freezer unit or a refrigeration unit. And when, and then, you know, with the refrigeration units that, that that donation of stocking the fridge with fresh air. And just to kind of tell you, anecdotally story that we got last week was one of our partners shared with us one of the small pantries, they said, you know, we just can't even believe that you're filling the fridge with dairy.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:44:57):
Normally we're only able to buy dairy a few times a year and it's for special holidays, like Christmas and staff, you know, like it just kills me when you, you know, kids are just so excited because they get to have milk with their cereal in the morning. Right. It's so, so small things of like really changing the difference and, you know, for kids, they don't get it. They're like, okay, I get to have milk with my cereal and it tastes so good. And I get to drink the milk with my cereal and maybe it's fruit flavored now instead of just regular flavored. But you know, some of the things that we take for granted a luxury, and I don't need to tell any of you guys that, but I mean, just those small things make such a big difference and we are struggling as a mom or a dad and you're like, God, I gotta get me, my toddler to eat this breakfast in the morning before they go to school or daycare something, how much better do you feel when they eat it? And they go to school and you know that they're gonna be prepared to learn that day. And that's just, I feel like the impact that we all get to make and feel on the programs that we run and the food banks and food pantries that we get to run. But I know it's just, just a small thing that we, we are contributing, but it makes such a big impact to them.
Mark Inkrott (00:46:07):
It does. And Charlie, I'll say we hired Melissa beginning of this or January. And I think your name was the first name that, that she had mentioned. she's like, we're gonna find a way to work with Charlie. And it's because of that mindset, right? I take it back to the business case, right? The audience is listening to the business case here. There is a true displacement opportunity for dairy. And the previous podcast that I did on this topic was doing good in business. And when you can do good in a capitalist, you know, environment, it it's, it meets the needs of all of the stakeholders. And I, I have, I have a story, right? We all have stories of why we're doing what we're doing in this, in this environment. And I was a substitute teacher trying to get back into the league and I was on bus duty.
Mark Inkrott (00:47:05):
The little girl was frantic and had to run back into the classroom to get her coat, but I'll go get the go food, just hold tight, ran back in, grabbed their coat off the chair and food fell out of her coat pockets and come to find out she was bringing food home every night in both of her pockets for her and her mom, they were living in their car, right? And to this day, it never, it it's lost on me the importance of what we're doing. I mean, this is a person who would have taken any type of food, right? We're talking about bringing fresh food because there is a health correlation, right? Unhealthy food equals unhealthy people. And that's not a solution, right? That's why we need refrigeration because healthy food equals a healthy family. Right. But that little girl, you know, it, it, it's important to remember those stories and it keeps us motivated.
Mark Inkrott (00:48:06):
It certainly keeps us motivated, but without understanding the business part of this, which is what the industry looks at why would we invest 90 million into 30,000 coolers of food pantries across the country? It has to make sense. And, it makes sense because when you can invest in doing the right thing, it's a win-win. And I, and I, and I love that part of what we're talking about on this podcast. It's, it's a great opportunity for the dairy industry. It's a great opportunity for helping our country, helping people like real people you know, provide, and provide for themselves. And, to have that learning mentality that Melissa mentioned, we have all been hungry before. We're distracted, right? And if you're just filled with junk, that doesn't, that doesn't solve anything, right? You get a 5, 10, or 20 minutes high, and you crash. Right. And so it truly is about sustainable nutrition
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:49:09):
And kind of building off that is Steph. I, when I think about sustainable nutrition, I think about the kind of cycle of food and how important farmers are to that cycle. And, you know, us hearing the stories. And as you mentioned in the podcast, there are so many farmers who, you know, are selling their farms or they're not farming the next generation isn't farming and how important it is, to support our farmers. And you know, a lot of the grants with U S D a and what, what, what we look at every single day. Sometimes there's an unequal balance where I think when people think about farming, they think about produce farmers. They don't always think about the dairy farmers. And that is something that's come to light in such a big way for me over the last couple of years. And maybe you could talk to us a little bit more, but just support our dairy farmers. And I think when people think about, okay, well I can go and get corn and avocados and watermelons, and I can take that to my local food bank, but they don't necessarily think about going to a dairy farm and getting all those dairy products because they also have to be processed. But anyway, for you, your perspective on that, just helping our dairy farmers thrive as well.
Stephanie Walsh (00:50:29):
Yeah. Melissa, I'm so glad you mentioned that. Because at the start of the pandemic, we started giving out this funding and telling them to purchase whatever dairy products were local to them. And I can't even count how many phone calls I got that said, I have a dairy farm down the road. How do I, how do I call them? How do I pick up milk? So another huge part that the dairy industry has played in this is the education role. We just recently had the most wonderful opportunity in which Melissa and Charlie joined us in feeding America in Kansas City. We had a feeding America, dairy nourishes America, Midwest symposium, which was a conference that invited food bank professionals and dairy industry staff, as well as folks who support those two buckets of folks to Kansas city to just start discussing this.
Stephanie Walsh (00:51:21):
And the most important thing on the agenda from my perspective was the farm tour. I wanted to be able to bring those food bank staff who work incredibly hard and are constantly getting information about the products that they're seeing coming and go through up their network and bring them to a farm. And we brought them to the Hines family farm, which is a farm family just outside of Kansas city milk in a bunch of cows. An industrial farming operation owned by a family father, a son, and their families. And we showed them, there's no place to purchase milk here, but it goes to Highland, which is the local milk processor. So, you know, being in this situation and being able, to share about how the dairy supply chain works are just another tick on the winds here. We do know that most Americans are very disconnected from their food supply. And I do think if the pandemic did one, one favor for us was kind of exposing that to them. But we know that we're doing the right thing here and that our farmers support us as well. But Melissa's right, you can't just show up at a dairy farm and, and pick up a gallon of milk. So
Charlie Benz (00:52:40):
One of the neat experiences at that session was DFA hosted us at their new headquarters, which was beautiful and facilitate great meetings. And they had a very, very nice spread for breakfast lunch, but the press, especially the breakfast struck people. And so, you know, a lot of people traditionally don't eat much breakfast anymore. And of course, when you have everything you can think of every breakfast meat, every egg dish, everything has cheese. You know, these folks were loading their plates up and enjoying it. And then, of course, anything that was left over went to a local pantry there. So nothing went to waste, but the comments, as I talked with the people at my table, you know, they, they have, have not seen that. And again, that's, that's kind of normal for a lot of the farm families that grow up and work hard every day.
Charlie Benz (00:53:31):
But a lot of families, you know, breakfast is grabbed on the go out and, you know, the way that we consume milk and another dairy can fit in that lifestyle because the nutrition piece of it. So that was a, it was just fun to watch the impact that people had. And also they don't get to talk to many corporate people. And I, that's why I call myself at these and they're like, well, why are you here? And we explained some of this stuff and they go, well, why would you do that? And I said, well, I said, it's not only the right thing to do from an agriculture industry standpoint, but selfishly our employees and especially our next generation of employees that are coming in, want to know that the company is doing things kind of the marks point for the greater good of the industry, or they wanna be part of something that they can participate in. And it's not just about a paycheck, you know, and, and even now I worked this week with two of our new hires who are working with some placements and they're thrilled because they've got a network and they can go work with them in a different role. Now it's just a whole different way of approaching, you know, back to Mark's point, doing business and doing good can work very well together, you know, and it's, it's just a good, sustainable way to do it.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:54:51):
You're right. And I think, you know, when we all wanna donate, sometimes we think, oh, well, this is gonna make an impact, or I can only make a $20 donation. How would that help? Right. But Charlie, you, and Stephanie have honed that in to figure out how do we you know, collaborate with others? How do we extend our reach? How do we work with our partners to you know, we're buying refrigeration this time and they're gonna fill the fridge with dairy, or they're gonna fill the fridge with another product. I know that you, you know, you work through a lot of them, the other food providers as well, because, and that that's something, I do wanna bring up on the call and, and Scott, you, you, you brought this up, so I don't wanna take credit for it, but it, it is, you know, we focus on a lot of, of the refrigeration infrastructure side.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:55:43):
And then, you know, with, with our partners at DFA cares is dairy. But you know, if you can't put a refrigeration unit into a pantry, that's okay. But what could you do? And is it a food donation? Is it a dairy donation? Is it creating your own sales program where you're building things like this or an internal employee program? I think when people think about the pandemic and they're like, well, it's over and there's no more food use or no more food, you know, shortages or needs out there, but that's just not, that's not the case, right? Everything is inflated with pricing. Gas prices are up, food prices are up, rent is up and people are struggling to make ends meet. So even if you can't say, Hey, I'm gonna, you know, put a refrigeration unit out there or you can't put, you know, a couple of thousand dollars check with, fill the fridge with, with Jerry out there. You know, could you make a smaller donation and aggregate that to some of the bigger campaigns that were running in partnerships together?
Scott Sorrell (00:56:43):
Why don't we specifically talk about some of those things, you know, I'm sure we've got people listening today says, listen, guys, you've got my ear. I wanna participate. How so? What are some specifics, Stephanie, let's start with you. How, if they wanna, if they wanna participate with DFA, DFA cares one of the other programs. How can they do that? Who do they contact?
Stephanie Walsh (00:57:02):
Well, first off, if you wanna support the dairy industry, I would encourage you to go out and buy some dairy products and make sure your fridges are stocked with them. Another call to action would be maybe volunteering at your local food pantry. Sometimes what prohibits a food pantry from accepting a donation of food is the transportation. And so this reaches out, they're usually very happy to accept your help. But for September hunger action month, which we're in September, it's September hunger action month we are just so excited to celebrate that the farmer's feeding families for a fund have raised over $950,000. And so hopefully by the end of this mic from asking our staff, our producers, and industry partners to donate we're hoping to donate or raise the last 50,000. We have a match from the DFA cares foundation, we'll match $20,000 as well. So you can go to our website DFA, milk.com, and follow the prompts for DFA cares, and you can donate there.
Scott Sorrell (00:58:12):
What if we're, a large integrator and you wanna donate product in kind poultry or pork, and a lot of it, do we have any guidance for people that wanna do that? Do they contact feeding America? What, what's your experience? What's your guidance on that? Does anybody have any ideas?
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:58:34):
Yeah. this is, this is a great question, cuz it comes up all the time is you know, I think you can certainly contact us at cooler management you know, feeding America, we can get you in contact with them. But then, the biggest thing is it needs to be understood of, of what kind of sizing it's in. Is it a household size? Does it need to be cut up? You know, because the, I think the biggest thing is I think consumer wise and CPG wise is they, they think, okay, well outside of dairy, which is packaged pretty, pretty well for household SI sizes overall. Some of our food banks across the country, just can't accept huge donations of side to B for larger packages. And, but they do have clean rooms in certain areas where they can put that, that meat or that, that poultry or even cheese into smaller household sizes.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (00:59:34):
So feeding America is trying to make some leaps and bounds by providing some of these clean rooms so that they can take in higher quantities of whatever is being donated. But we can be a hand in that at cooler management, we work with beauty, America, and corporate. We do work on the dairy side and the protein side. So happy to help with that. Or if it's a local donation, you know, can we connect you to one of our feeding America food pantries or, or outside of feeding America? We work with organizations like Catholic charities or Y M C or some of our dairy partners through the dairy count go across the country. How do we help save any of that food? And if we could be a resource you know, mark, and in our vision together has been, where can we help? And if it's pro bono, then, that's not a big deal. We need, to help and save that fresh food and help get it to wherever it needs to be. And so we would welcome that at cooler management of, of trying to be a resource for anyone who's making those donations.
Scott Sorrell (01:00:36):
Okay. Charlie, somebody one of our customer's allied industry, if they wanted to participate with us with placing coolers and some of the locations that we're working with how can they go about doing that?
Charlie Benz (01:00:49):
So the short answer is just to contact your Malcolm rep and that'll usually funnel back either to you or me, and we'll get rolling on it. But a lot of times your point, Scott, we've had several dairies that wanted to donate animals to be part of this. And that's where you make a, you know, we end up making a phone call to Melissa because it's not just the getting it processed. It's where do you find enough cooler space to handle these things? And it's, you know, what's great about working with Melissa is she may not be the right person, but the networks that she and mark have from all the things they're doing, allow them access to the, and that's what I saw at that meeting with DFA that Steph helped put together is the food pantries are busy focusing on the people that are coming in and feeding America is doing an outstanding job at high-level handling.
Charlie Benz (01:01:42):
A lot of things made a tremendous amount of things, but the devil is in the details on some of the day-to-day stuff. And that's where a lot of the agriculture-based resources in rural America wanna plug in. And, you know, we, we struggled with it even working with Melissa, because with working with the staff at these food pantries, there's a lot of turnovers. They're busy, you gotta have a system. And that just has been something that's evolved, but now with Melissa's help. And then Stephanie on working with us on getting the money to flow, we've got systems in place so we can help 'em build their system, but it's taken us 18 months to get our system rolling along. You know, so, you know, other partners just love the fact they could plug and play with us. Novis DSM. They said, look, where do I sign up?
Charlie Benz (01:02:41):
How much is there a place I can send the money easily with the credit card? And that's what Steph helped us set up with the website. And then when they go to get the coolers placed, they'll help have people come in and work at the pantries those days, they just wanna know where to show up and do things, but all those details in the back, you know, that first year our team did a lot of that and that's not our wheelhouse, you know, it was, it was rewarding to a point, but we don't, we're not the experts in it. And so, you know, that that's the learning is, is if another corporate company comes in, there's a lot of work that a lot of people like Stephanie, Melissa, and mark are already doing that we can just plug into and they can put 'em in charge or contact with the right people, you know?
Mark Inkrott (01:03:29):
Yeah. Thanks for saying that, Charlie. I mean, we, we take pride in, we do everything. We snap a picture, we send it to you and say the work's done and you are good at what you do. And our customers and clients are good at what they do. And we're good at what we do. But when we can do that turnkey solution snap, a picture says that work is done. That's, you know, that just creates efficiencies. Right. And it, and it gets everything moving faster and it, and at the end of the day, it's a quicker solution to the end, right? It it's, it's getting us to the point where we all collectively want to be. And, you know, we just play a small part in it. Right. It takes, it takes everyone to do what they do well, but, you know, Melissa and, and our team, we, you know, we just enjoy doing it and, and we do a pretty, pretty good job at it. I just try and stay out of everybody's work. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (01:04:20):
so if I can kind of summarize with what I just heard there is, don't be afraid to start the young program, right? There are a lot of benefits for the community, for your salespeople, for your company, and don't be afraid, right? Because there are resources available. We've kind of made some of the mistakes and we've, we we've learned from it. We've met the right people. And so please contact us. We'd be happy to help you and, and, and share with our, our experiences and help you create your program. We'll put the contact information in the show notes of the program. Guys, this has been a humbling conversation you guys are doing an amazing job. I appreciate all of you and all that you're doing for people hungry people for agriculture, your great ambassador. So it, it, this has been a great conversation. I don't know if you noticed or not, but they flickered the lights. That means that it's its last call. And so with the last call, what I'm gonna ask each of you to do is, is talk a little bit about how the need may be evolving, and then what's next for DFA, for cooler kids for cooler management. And
Speaker 6 (01:05:26):
Our last call question is sponsored by amino sure. XM, precision release methionine, the next generation in amino acid, balancing with amino. Sure. XM, you can save up to 5 cents per cow, per day on your meeting investment. Try it today and receive an additional 2.50 cents per cow, per day savings with Che's limited-time rebate, offer, contact your Alchem representative to learn more. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (01:05:51):
Stephanie, why don't I start with you?
Stephanie Walsh (01:05:53):
Well, Scott, thanks for teeing that up. So like you mentioned before so just like the communities that we're working to support, we're also building this community of folks who support it. So I never thought in a million years in 2020 that looking two years down the road, I would have such a supportive network. I think that people on this call can solve any problem that's thrown at us. And so I encourage you all to join us. DFA will continue doing this work. Just wanted to mention that, you know, actual dairy product donations are occurring every day from all DFAS brands. Since the start of the pandemic, we've donated 34.6 million servings of dairy equivalent since the start of the pandemic, which is just incredible. And we are just one dairy company. So we're just really excited to continue doing this work in the future. We know that recovering from this pandemic is not a flip of the light switch and that our communities will be recovering and hopefully finding a better way to support those communities as we move forward. So with Scott, thank you so much for having me. And it was, it was a pleasure.
Scott Sorrell (01:07:12):
Well, thank you, Stephanie. You've been a great guest look forward to meeting you in person someday. Charlie, why don't we go with you next?
Charlie Benz (01:07:19):
So I think what, what we've learned Scott, as we've worked through this is there's value in this as an activity with food awareness, food safety, and I mean, and, and security, but really from a corporate standpoint or from a company standpoint, it's about the relationships we build with our customers doing something together. And it's a very interesting opportunity with the next generation of employees who are looking for that with the companies that they're gonna select that they work with. So there's a lot of intrinsic value in that. The other thing is we started a program where we do matching for folks that work in our plants or our employees anywhere, but they didn't know what that money would go toward, you know, other than what they first donated. So now when you kind of create this and you also allow them to go work in the pantries and put some hours in, it gets a lot more traction and a lot more energy around it. And it builds a nice community, whether it's the working group in an area or the manufacturing plant, or even the home office. And so those are some of the things that I don't think we had, you know, we, Jonathan threw it to us and said, how do we handle this milk being dumped and do something positive for the industry? And it's evolving to something different. And that is cool.
Scott Sorrell (01:08:48):
Well said, Charlie Melissa mark, who wants to go next? Listen, you wanna go
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (01:08:56):
Know that? I always wanna talk sky. I mean like, and mark for mark knows that so you know, I just wanna say first and foremost, the passion that's on the phone, that's in the room in the virtual room is just always so impressive. And when you can get up every day, work with this group of people, and know that you're not only going to work for a business, but you are changing the lives of people across the country. I mean, it's a pretty rewarding program that we're running together and what we get to do on an everyday basis. So I just wanna thank all of you on the phone and everybody's listening is, you know, just the gratitude that we have, Atler management for the partners and the work that we get to do with you. And for, for what's up for, for next, for us, it's always innovation.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (01:09:45):
It is always making sure that we are thinking about what the food banks need. What, do our CPGs need? What do our retailers need? What do our partners need and have an answer for that? And so you know, earlier this year we launched something called the market, which is a mobile refrigerated pant food pantry. And that is something that we've been focusing on because in, in the hunger world, you know, not only do we wanna give people a box of food, we wanna give them a box of food that they can choose, right? That their families, want to eat that meets the dietary restrictions that they get to choose. And there's a lot of dignity that comes with that. And I think that's a part of the program. And the work that we do is a lot of the coolers that we place are also Glassdoor, refrigerated units, and people get to open those doors and they get to choose what's for their family.
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (01:10:40):
And I think keeping food dignity top of mind is very important to us. And innovation is very important to us and just constantly listening to our network of what their needs are. And the last thing I, I would say that we focus on and, and this is probably a little bit different that you would think to hear from somebody like cooler management, but it is using all the dollars for the grants that are on the table for U S D a or local, you know, local grants at the government level or state level to make sure that not a dollar that gets wasted. And it goes to, you know, getting each of our families out there, food to eat every night. So, you know, there's a, there are billions of dollars of grants out there. But if food banks and food pantries don't know about it, then it's going to waste and we don't want that to happen. And so whether it's going to refrigeration or not, we're here to help our, you know, connect some of those dots and be a bigger player for overall nutritious foods for everyone. You know, that's just one of our focuses at Kohl management. So again, thank you, Scott. Thank you, Charlie, for letting us be on here. It's such a pleasure to be your partner, and this was so much fun today. So
Scott Sorrell (01:11:51):
Yeah. Thank, thank you, Melissa. We thank you for everything you do, mark. We're gonna give you the final word.
Mark Inkrott (01:11:56):
Yeah, well, you know, that's why I hired Melissa cuz she says it all so well yeah. I, I think with the final word, you
Melissa Malcolm-Cullison (01:12:03):
All heard that. I just wanna say you all heard that
Mark Inkrott (01:12:07):
It comes down to people. It comes down to the people at the farm gate, raising livestock, raising crops, and doing what they do on the farm for us. So we don't have to, right? It comes down to the business case and the charitable food system. In my mind, the more exposure we place on the lack of infrastructure, the more money that's pumped into the charitable food system, the more people that will be helped, the more people we can employ, and the more people that hopefully will get out of the charitable food system because they have access to healthy, fresh food. And they will remember that they had the opportunity and they had the access to fresh, healthy food. And I do believe, you know, from bottom of my heart, I believe that they won't be in that charitable food system. If we do something about it right now, I believe that there's a house with shingles on it without a foundation and a charitable food system, right?
Mark Inkrott (01:13:02):
We've got all of this food being pumped into the charitable food system and that's great, but without proper infrastructure and foundation, it's going to waste. And if we do something about that 30,000 coolers in my mind is half of all the food pantries right now in the charitable food system for the next 10 years. That's about how long these quality refrigeration units will last. That means for the next 10 years, we don't have to think about refrigeration. We can think about where the food comes from and I believe that's the solution. So Scott, thank you for the time. Yeah.
Scott Sorrell (01:13:40):
Very welcome, mark. That was well said and a great way, to end our conversation this evening. Mark Stephanie, Melissa, and Charlie, this has been humbling, as I said before. I enjoyed it. I want to thank you for your vision and your dedication to feeding those in need and helping bring the industry together to make an even bigger impact. I also wanna thank you for joining us tonight and shining a light on what else we can do to help those in the most need par oil listeners. Thank you for hanging in there with us. As we tackle this unique topic and bring new projects, programs, and ideas to you, we hope we've inspired some new thinking and local action. Please reach out with your ideas and we'll do all we can to bring the right local players together to make it happen with that. I hope you've learned something. I hope you've had some fun and I hope to see you next time here at the real science exchange, where it's always a happy hour and you're always among friends.
Speaker 6 (01:14:33):
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