Pete Nebhut

By Elise Mitchell

As Ed mentioned in his post earlier this week, the donation last Saturday to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank received a lot of positive media coverage and helped bring to light the hard work of many volunteers.  We’ve posted some of those stories here from our local TV stations KFSM, KHOG and KNWA and appreciate their coverage of the event.

While sometimes it can be tough to get media attention for good news, we’ve actually found media to be very receptive to our outreach for Tyson’s donations to food banks around the country.  Our guess is that increasingly, hunger is newsworthy, which is both good and bad, of course.  Good because so many people are actively trying to help those in need; bad because the need continues to grow as a result of the economic stress people are enduring. 

Yes, we’ve been fortunate to earn our share of coverage, but our ultimate goal in doing this is to continue to shine the spotlight on the cause itself.  Hopefully, from greater awareness will come greater resources.  With all of us working together as well as greater attention brought to the fight against hunger, we can continue to make a difference.
 

Elise Mitchell is the President and CEO of Mitchell Communications.

 

UofA student athletes help distribute more than 40k lbs. of food to NW AR hunger relief agencies

By Ed Nicholson

When athletes make the news, it's usually for one of two reasons: Either they're excelling on the field or messing up in public. What a lot of people don't realize--and what  doesn't get reported often enough--is that most university athletic programs have student life involvement programs that regularly engage kids in worthy activities in their communities.
This past Saturday, on a cold, damp morning, perfect for sleeping in, more than 130 University of Arkansas athletes came out to assist in the delivery of 40,000 pounds of donated food to the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.
It was the fourth year in a row Tyson Foods and the UofA had worked with national organization Lift Up America on the event, which works to engage student athletes in community service, donates food to the food bank, and creates awareness for hunger in our home community.  More than 50 of the food bank's agencies came out to receive food.
All three of the local broadcast affiliates showed up, as well as two newspapers.  Lots of folks got fed and the athletes got some well-deserved positive attention for their off-the-field good works.
I'll be posting more stuff from Saturday's event in the next few days.

By Ed Nicholson

 

Austin athletes unload a truckload of food to agencies of CAFB

One of the most fulfilling things about being involved in hunger relief is the opportunity to work with some fantastic partners.  We've talked a lot about our friends at  Share Our Strength and Feeding America. 
But one group that doesn't get mentioned as much is Lift Up America.  Founded in 2004, by the visionary Dave Hannah and other business leaders, Lift Up America is a coalition of influential business and sports leaders, brought together by a common goal of addressing some of society's most pressing challenges. 
In 2005, Tyson Foods began our partnership with them with food donations in cooperation with the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins.
Each year since then, a growing number of professional and college athletic teams have lent their support and their players' time to events in which food is donated to their local communities, but more important, awareness for the issue of hunger is elevated.  Last year, we did donations in fourteen cities across the country.
The people who comprise Lift Up America have solved some tremendous business challenges.  Very successfully. They've competed at the highest levels on the field and off.  It's a tribute to them that they are now applying their strategic skills to challenges our world faces.  
Last week, I had the privelege of being in Austin, joining a burgeoning local chapter of Lift Up America, led by highly-successful businessman, Michael Cress, in making a donation to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (another fabulous partner). We were joined at Southpark Meadows, who generously supplied the venue,  by members of the Austin Toros and the Austin Aztex, along with notable athletes, such as former UT football standout Will Matthews and KC Chiefs linebacker, Derrick Johnson. 
CAFB CEO, David Davenport said it well.  "Addressing hunger is a community challenge."
Thanks to Lift Up America for bringing the Austin community together for this event. 

 More photos of this event can be seen here. 

Here's a collection of video from the 2009 Lift Up America donation with the University of Arkansas Razorbacks.   89 student athletes, 39 northwest Arkansas non-profit agencies, a 35 lb. truckload of Tyson products came together on one clear, cold Ozark Saturday morning.  It was fun and rewarding.

Lieu R. Smith from Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry in Berryville, Arkansas.

Lieu is one of thousands of people who work at ground level in the fight against hunger.  His food bank feeds four to five hundred families a month.

Rodger Hunter, the Student Life Coordinator for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks athletic program is a heck of a guy. 

Rodger works hard to get student athletes involved in the community. To put them in places where they need to be, and keep them out of places they don't.

Today, Rodger helped bring an amazing 85 Razorback athletes to Don Reynolds stadium--in sub-freezing temperatures and long before they normally get up on Saturday morning--to help distribute 35 thousand pounds of Tyson products to 38 agencies of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.  With that much muscle and energy, it was phenomenal how quickly the product went out of the  Tyson truck and into the agency vehicles.

Props to you Rodger.  Keep on doing what you're doing, and thanks for your help today.

Other student athlete video interviews can be seen here:

Jackie Booker--UofA Soccer Goalie

Kyle Komerek--UofA Javelin Thrower

Most folks around Arkansas know London Crawford as being an outstanding receiver, and part of what has been known as the "play of the year," a 24-yard touchdown pass in the last 22 seconds, that pulled Arkansas ahead of LSU in the final game of the 2008 season.

But today, London made another outstanding play, interviewing a member of an agency of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank, discussing the work of the agency in fighting hunger in the community. 

London was one of about 85 Arkansas athletes who came out on a sub-freezing day to help distribute food to 38 agencies of the food bank.  

This is the kind of off-the-field news that, while occurring often, doesn't get reported enough.

Kudos London.  We think you could make a great reporter.

University of Arkansas football players helping donate 35K lbs. of Tyson products at a Lift Up America donation, January 24, 2009.

David Cook, who volunteers with the Decatur Christians in Action food pantry talks about the great need in a small community.

By Ed Nicholson

 

A cold morning at Don Reynolds Stadium

Today we're live-blogging from the University of Arkansas's Don Reynold's stadium, where we're partnering with the Arkansas Razorbacks, and Lift Up America to distribute a truckload of Tyson products to agencies of the Northwest Arkansas Food Bank.

We have Tyson chairman, John Tyson, UofA athletic director, Jeff Long, Dave Hannah, CEO of Lift Up America, and a bunch of Razorback athletes and and spirit squad members, all braving the cold to help load boxes of chicken into trucks, vans and trailers going to non-profit agencies serving the needy in northwest Arkansas. 

All of this started five years ago with similar donations involving the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs.  This is the third year we've done this event with the Razorbacks, one of sixteen such events we've done with Lift Up America and college and pro teams this year. 

We'll be posting here as the day develops, as well as putting up Twitter messages, adding photos to Flickr, and posting videos to YouTube. 

Special shout out to Hugg & Hall for bringing out a forklift to help us get the products off the truck!