The team from No Child Hungry returned to the PrimeTime show floor in August. While there, we took the opportunity to sit down with Senior Vice President Mike Whitaker to get the latest on the meal packing initiative, other programs NCH has launched and the impact that giveback efforts can have on the businesses that participate.
Rob Stott: All right, we are back on the Independent Thinking Podcast and the last time we did this, I’m sure you remember, we got through an episode and you were like, all right, hold on, I’m turning the mics around.
Mike Whitaker: Press pause, let’s talk about you now.
Rob Stott: And we had ourselves a double episode before we knew it.
Mike Whitaker: They made us promise not to do that again though, so we got to keep it tight today.
Rob Stott: Keep it tight. We got a deadline and a schedule to hold, so.
Mike Whitaker: Yes.
Rob Stott: Mr. Mike Whitaker, it is an absolute pleasure to have you on and talking about everything you’ve got going on because my man, it’s always good to see you and to participate in what you bring to this show.
Mike Whitaker: So it has been such a pleasure to be here for the past couple of days. PrimeTime in Las Vegas. The temperature outside is perfect, right? Hot deals inside, hot weather outside, it works out.
Rob Stott: Yeah, it’s a theme.
Mike Whitaker: What a great show you’ve had here. It’s not over yet, it’s still going, but I got to tell you, one of the highlights for me was getting to see you live out a dream and introduce a Philadelphia Eagles legend. That’s the only question I’ll ask you today is, how excited were you when you got to introduce Jon Dorenbos?
Rob Stott: I think you saw it on my face, right?
Mike Whitaker: Yeah.
Rob Stott: Well, it was a cool moment. Not often do you get to run into people, the players from your favorite football team. Even fewer times I have to imagine that you’re able to do it in a work setting like keynoting your company’s event. So to be able to be up there and do that with a football jersey on that… I’m asked, Mr. Hickman, Hey, just throw a jersey on, it’d be cool, introduce yourself to the guy, get it signed or something. Not knowing, Hey, he’s going to call me out and have me go up there and introduce him. So I feel like it was just another way for him to get one over as a Tampa Bay Buck fan, on a Philadelphia Eagle fan. It’s not like he didn’t close down the vet and knock us out of the playoffs last year, but just had to get that one more little shot.
Mike Whitaker: That one more butt. It all became, first of all, the kid on Christmas smile you had was a heart-warming way to start.
Rob Stott: Yeah, thank you.
Mike Whitaker: But I got to tell you, Jon Dorenbos, an amazing speaker and my take away from that, that’s carried on here on the show floor, we’ve seen it from members, we’ve seen it from vendors, we’ve seen it from… I noticed there’s some dust on your sleeves, we just came out of the meal packing station.
Rob Stott: I know you’re supposed to roll them up and get your hands in, but I didn’t and it’s showing.
Mike Whitaker: That’s okay. It works because Jon talked a lot about passion.
Rob Stott: Yeah.
Mike Whitaker: Jon talked a lot about caring for others. It’s something that this group’s done for a long, long time.
Rob Stott: For sure.
Mike Whitaker: Building on a legacy of already 2.6 million meals packed for hungry kids just by the members, team, and partners of Nationwide. Back at it here in Vegas. Well on our way to 40,000 meals over just a day and a half.
Rob Stott: It’s unbelievable.
Mike Whitaker: It’s a special organization and it’s a special partnership. It means a lot to us to get to come back, spend this time together with folks who are not only great supporters but are just friends.
Rob Stott: Yeah.
Mike Whitaker: And I’ll tell you, the evolution’s been amazing for us. It’s not just meal packing, it’s not just going their stores and doing events with their teams, doing events in their communities. Several Nationwide members have joined our partnership programs. We’ve got two great partnership programs and based on the backgrounds that we have, understanding small business needs, we went into our partnership programs with the thought behind it being, that partnerships are a win for both sides. And for a lot of nonprofits, it’s a little hard to make that connection. And so many nonprofits supported by local business and it’s great, but we wanted to make sure that we poured into them everything they poured into us. We know that all the data tells us overwhelmingly that today’s shoppers are looking to do business with companies that share their values. Jon touched on that.
Rob Stott: He did. He did.
Mike Whitaker: Your values are powerful. And when we look at what’s happening in the world, and we are not going to name any company names, but there’s so many times when, what a company puts out into the world about their values, alienate clients, create controversy.
Rob Stott: It’s easy, and I think you could say the same about the members here. They can sniff out, we’ll call it the BS in the world, right?
Mike Whitaker: They can.
Rob Stott: They can tell you, if you make an effort and it’s just because you want to check a box, they know that that’s the case. And you see it play out here. They know that this means something, the partnership means something to us. So to see the way, all the way back at, what was it, 2018? We kicked off this partnership with No Child Hungry and everything it’s grown into from, I think it was, I forget 150,000 meals were packed, or a hundred thousand meals that first…?
Mike Whitaker: It’s a crazy story, that first show.
Rob Stott: Yeah.
Mike Whitaker: I remember it like it was yesterday when Tom went back to the executive team and said, we’re going to pack a hundred thousand meals at PrimeTime. The at the time CFO, he’s a numbers guy, he starts scribbling out numbers and he starts doing math and he starts saying, that means that every person’s got to pack this many meals. It’s mathematically impossible. But here’s the cool thing, when it comes to giving, when it comes to pouring out of your heart, math doesn’t matter, because it was cool, that event was in Orlando where we’re headquartered. So we hit the hundred thousand and kept going.
Rob Stott: Yeah.
Mike Whitaker: Go get more supplies. And it just continues and continues to grow. And with these small business partners, one of the things that I’ve shared many, many times, we’ve all heard this saying, best story always wins. And that’s one of the great things that you’re doing in this channel, and I want to compliment you on that, nobody ever says, “Good job, Rob.”
Rob Stott: Thank you.
Mike Whitaker: But you’re helping these folks tell their stories. Because best story always wins is an incomplete sentence. The full sentence is, best story always wins, but only those stories that are effectively told get to compete.
Rob Stott: Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Whitaker: So, for so many independents, for so many years, they’ve always been active in giving back to their communities. If it weren’t for independent businesses, there’d be no little leagues. Think about that.
Rob Stott: Right, all the sponsorships, the team names you see on the front. Yeah, absolutely.
Mike Whitaker: But what they do with the best heart is a lot of them will say, we give a lot in our community and we don’t want to talk about it because if we do, we’re bragging. And we don’t want to brag about it, because then it’s not real.
Rob Stott: Humble.
Mike Whitaker: But what it actually does, it does a disservice to their business and it does a disservice to the community, because people are seeking out businesses to patronize that share their values. That make a positive impact in the community that are doing something more than just business.
Rob Stott: They don’t want to be the one to go toot their own horn, if you will, but they absolutely, to your point, they have to.
Mike Whitaker: They don’t have to, because here’s the cool thing. The way we built this partnership, we’ll toot the horn for them.
Rob Stott: Right, exactly.
Mike Whitaker: And that’s where it’s genuine because we’re able to come in and truly talk about the impact that they make, and draw that story out, because it’s so important in today’s world. And especially, I get to pick on you here a little bit, you’re a little younger than I am.
Rob Stott: This is like a pastime of yours.
Mike Whitaker: But…
Rob Stott: No.
Mike Whitaker: I always love bouncing things off you because when we talk about, I’m going to do a shameless plug. See, I can say things you can’t say.
Rob Stott: Fair enough.
Mike Whitaker: Ladies and gentlemen, this is not the only podcast on which you can find Mr. Rob Stott. Your Twisted Eras podcast, really the thing it brings to light for me is that generational perspective.
Rob Stott: Yeah, it’s fair.
Mike Whitaker: And it matters. And in your generation, we’re seeing all the data that says your generation demands more from companies when it comes to community engagement, community involvement, to being the right kind of business.
Rob Stott: Right. They demand more, but at the same time, there’s a payoff if you do that for them, if you cater to that generation and they are, I know I say they, I should be saying we.
Mike Whitaker: You should be saying, us.
Rob Stott: We are incredibly loyal.
Mike Whitaker: Yes.
Rob Stott: Once you find that brand and your values align and you’re willing to invest the time in financial, let’s be real, especially in a show like this, there’s a lot of financial investment that’s involved in this as well. The loyalty lasts a lifetime.
Mike Whitaker: It does.
Rob Stott: So there’s a payoff to it.
Mike Whitaker: It is.
Rob Stott: For sure.
Mike Whitaker: And it’s a loyalty that if it’s earned, you get to keep it. And it’s not just unique to your generation, you guys are just leading the charge on that. But we’ve seen so many things happen as these members have hosted events. As they’ve been able to reach out. And it’s an area of the world where we can all agree. We live in a world that’s pretty charged today.
Rob Stott: A little bit.
Mike Whitaker: It’s easy to get in an argument. It’s hard to find a person who says, we shouldn’t be doing our best to feed children who are hungry.
Rob Stott: Yeah, absolutely.
Mike Whitaker: And we don’t think about it in our day-to-day life, I know you’ve got kids, sweet children. So glad-
Rob Stott: You say that.
Mike Whitaker: So glad they take after their mother.
Rob Stott: Yeah, right?
Mike Whitaker: But it’s going into a summertime. I think about my own kids, this is hard to say out loud, I have two high schoolers now. And they love that summertime freedom between school years. But there are one in five children in the US facing food insecurity that summer’s scary for them, because they don’t have that school breakfast, they don’t have that school lunch. Weekends are a lot of fun, unless you’re facing a weekend going, I’m not sure where the food’s going to come from. It’s a silent epidemic in this country, we don’t talk about it enough. When we talk about childhood hunger, a lot of places that we’re active around the world, people think of immediately, the places like Haiti.
Rob Stott: Yeah, exactly.
Mike Whitaker: They say, okay, well I understand third-world country, there’s a lot of poverty, there’s a lot of hunger among the kids there. And don’t get me wrong, this day we sit in right now, today and every day 16,000 children are going to die from starvation to malnutrition.
Rob Stott: So sad. It’s so sad.
Mike Whitaker: It’s heartbreaking.
Rob Stott: Yeah.
Mike Whitaker: And then when you flip it around and you look at the other side of the puzzle, we have enough food on this planet to easily feed everybody. We don’t have a food problem, we have a sharing problem. And that’s all we do, is we’re trying to help with the sharing.
So when folks ask us, are you domestic or international? We do both. We have to go international because that’s where the children are dying. We have to go here at home because that’s where the children are suffering. But when you think about your kids in school, when they look around, if your child’s sitting in a group of five, one of those kids doesn’t know where their next meal’s coming from, and that’s a travesty. So I don’t care what side of any issue you fall on, we can all fall on the side of hungry children should be fed.
Rob Stott: Yeah, they deserve to eat.
Mike Whitaker: Yeah, they should be fed. And they should be fed healthy nutritious meals. Here at PrimeTime, we’re packing apple cinnamon oatmeal. And it is FDA approved. That meal has enough vitamins, nutrients, everything a person needs for a day, all in one meal.
Rob Stott: The thing I’ve always loved about the partnership too is that you get a ton of engagement at the shows, in member stores and a lot of effort put into physically packing the meals. Typically, I’m sure there are people that see it, that are there with you on the ground, but typically they pack the meal and then move on, they don’t get to see that, the impact of what comes out the other end. Who they’re helping, or where these meals are going.
And I know we’ve had that chance, right? We’ve been to a couple of years ago, the trip to Haiti. And even more recently, I think last year this time, you had a couple of team members with you out there in Hawaii for everything that was going on in Maui. And so, I know for you too now, being on boots on the ground as these meals are being delivered, I know supply kits are also something that you guys are heavily invested in, involved with. The impact to you, seeing the result of all that work, talk about that.
Mike Whitaker: I’m really glad you brought it up. We invite all of our participating organizations to join us on the distribution. I do that with a caveat. Unless you’re willing to give away a piece of your heart, don’t come. Because when you do, you are in, I’m going to give you a good example. Because I don’t want to talk about me. I want to talk about Tom. I want to talk about Tom Hickman. So CEO of Nationwide. Tom was on that trip to Haiti and it tapped into a place in his heart and he’s in that spot as a leader where he’s doing something every great leader should do. And that’s not just talk the talk, but walk the walk.
For all of us, life is busy. Carving out that time is hard. But every time that call’s gone out, because we’re not a disaster relief organization, but we do crisis response. When a natural or man created disaster hits, children suffer disproportionately, they’re going to be hungry. So we go. When we’re putting a team together to go, I know that’s a guy that’s always going to take my phone call and I know that without even really saying where we’re going or what we’re doing he goes, “Yeah, what can I do to help? I’m in.” And I want to brag on him.
Back in January, it was a pretty special moment when we got to recognize Tom. We are a certifying organization for the President’s Volunteer Service Awards, awards from the White House, awarded by the president. And there’s some strict requirements for someone to be eligible to earn that award. And the harshest requirement is the black and white one, and that’s how many hours of your time have you given? And they don’t start with how many hours, Rob, let’s be honest, they start with how many hundreds of hours.
Rob Stott: Right, yeah.
Mike Whitaker: And as we sat down and looked at our logs of all our great volunteers, it didn’t surprise me a bit when we were able to recognize Tom and he’s the first guy that he’s probably going to fuss at us for talking about this.
Rob Stott: Right, he’s going to be so mad.
Mike Whitaker: Because he says it’s not about me.
Rob Stott: Right.
Mike Whitaker: And I agree, it’s not about any individual, but it is about this, it’s about inspiration to others.
Rob Stott: Right, that’s exactly, yeah. It’s the trickle-down effect. Because he’s the guy at the top that he’s set this vision for what he wants to give back to look like. And I mean, it’s permeated the entire organization. You on the floor, it’s just like one testament, one example of how his commitment to the cause, and we know how important just children are to him and being at the heart of every give back effort Nationwide is involved with. So no, not surprising at all, but it’s awesome to see how that impacts the rest of the organization.
Mike Whitaker: It is.
Rob Stott: And the membership.
Mike Whitaker: And I would say, and I think Tom would agree with this, as a leader, as a much visible leader in the industry, you have an obligation. It’s a responsibility to set the tone, to set the example for the culture that you want your own and other organizations to strive for. We give back in recognition of our own success. It is an obligation.
We so often forget how fortunate we truly are. For leaders that don’t forget that, who say, you know what? Let me find a way to give first. Let me find a way to give as a way of giving thanks. Then you look around and we just left, your sleeve’s again, you’re all dusty. We just left the meal packing lines and there’s a whole line over there.
Rob Stott: There is.
Mike Whitaker: It’s Nationwide team members in the middle of a show where they have lots of obligations, lots of things they need to do, but they’re intentionally carving out time just to pack some meals because they want to be part of the difference.
Rob Stott: Yeah, it’s incredible.
Mike Whitaker: That’s special.
Rob Stott: Well, we thank you for being here. It’s always an honor to have you on the floor and to watch just the mission in action. Whether it’s members or Nationwide employees or vendor partners that are over there. Your team obviously running around sweating, you’re sweating, man.
Mike Whitaker: It’s a little sweat. It’s okay.
Rob Stott: I should have had a towel over here for you, but…
Mike Whitaker: This is the first time I’ve sat down in two days. I’m loving it.
Rob Stott: That’s truly why you wanted to do it. No, I love you. This was so much fun. I want to take up less of your time, because we need you over there.
Mike Whitaker: Yeah, we got to go back.
Rob Stott: I know, we got to get back over there.
Mike Whitaker: I’m going to shameless plug.
Rob Stott: Go for it.
Mike Whitaker: And I’m not just talking to independent retailers, I’m not just talking to Nationwide members. If you have a business and you’d like to get involved, reach out and talk to us. We’re kind of one of those down home organizations, you go to the website, we don’t have an 800 number, my number’s there. William’s number, that’s our cell phone, call us. We’d love to talk to you about the partnership, about how we come alongside each other and how we connect with your community, connect you with those current customers, those future customers, and make a big difference for kids right there in your hometown. It’s a lot of fun, we’d love to talk to you. Give us a call.
Rob Stott: Awesome.
Mike Whitaker: If you give us a call, we may be able to get you an autographed picture of Rob Stott. I will throw that into the view.
Rob Stott: We’ll see, I got it right in my retainer or whatever it is that as long as there’s a bowl of mini KitKats next to it, I’ll sign as many pictures as you want.
Mike Whitaker: Now, do they need to be room-temperature, refrigerated? How do we need to have those set up?
Rob Stott: Coming just out of the freezer.
Mike Whitaker: Okay. We’ll get on that.
Rob Stott: A little crunch, extra crunch to them. All right?
Mike Whitaker: We got it.
Rob Stott: Awesome, Mike. As always, great to chat with you and have you here and appreciate it, man. Always good to see you.
Mike Whitaker: It’s always great to see you, keep telling those stories, man. Keep putting the heroes out front, these independent retailers are amazing and you do such a good job.
Rob Stott: Thank you.
Mike Whitaker: If you’re an independent retailer, reach out to Rob and say, “Hey, let’s chat.”
Rob Stott: Let’s do it.
Mike Whitaker: You need storytellers in your life. And he’s a good one.
Rob Stott: Thank you.
Mike Whitaker: And as a Nationwide team member, is there a member out there you wouldn’t help them put their story together?
Rob Stott: Absolutely not. Every single one of you has a story to tell whether you know it or not, so we’re always looking for those stories and yeah, even if you don’t think you do, I’ll be able to pull one out of you, I promise.
Mike Whitaker: For sure.
Rob Stott: We’ll have some fun. Cool. Well this was great. Again, thank you and I look forward to doing this again soon.
Mike Whitaker: Thank you, Rob. Let’s go pack some meals.
