Culinary Adventure Interview Featuring Kim Schul Meals of Wheels

Good morning, afternoon to those near and far, to those that are on live and some that may be reviewing this as a playback later. My name is Renee Hahn and I am here today as part of Naples Women's Club and I am honored to have with me Kim Schuyl, who is with the St. Vincent de Paul Group. She is the, she is the boss lady, the executive director over all of the programs. So Kim, welcome.

Thank you, Renee. Thank you for having me on. Uh, thank you for introducing St. Vincent de Paul to everyone, and thank you, Naples Women's Club.

Absolutely. Well, we love our local partnerships, and what we're here to talk to you today about is an event that the Naples Women's Club is planning for January, February, and March. It's the first time we've planned such an event. It's the Culinary Adventure, And for us, you know, our whole charter is around giving back to the community. And we just have amazing women that are a part of this club and give financially and time-wise and energy and passion. And so there are a lot of events throughout the year that the Women's Club does to raise funds to be able to give back to the community. This just happens to be a new one that we're starting and we're really excited. It's going to be comprised of— we've got 16 restaurants that we're partnered with to host luncheons on 3 separate dates with small intimate groups of people who purchase the tickets, about 16 we're expecting per luncheon. We've got 4 organizations that we're partnering with. And so for us, this culinary adventure is really to accomplish 3 things. Number 1, we all know that COVID has really struck a jugular for a lot of small businesses and particularly the hospitality and food and beverage has felt it arguably probably one of the most. And so by doing this event and hosting these luncheons on these 3 separate occasions in the restaurants and paying them for that service, we want to support our culinary community. That's number 1. Number 2, not too far off from that, keeping with the theme of food, we wanted to find a way to take that broader and also make sure that residents in our our community also have a way to stay fed during tough times and all times. So that was the second thing. And then third, not to be underscored by the generosity that these people purchasing tickets will get to enjoy, but we do hope that the event itself will provide a really nice opportunity for 16 patrons to come together with kind hearts and enjoy lunch at a host restaurant. By a chef with meals made specifically for them and everything within COVID standards, of course, because we want people to be safe. So that culinary adventure is what brings me here to talk to Kim today. And Kim, before we get into how St. Vincent de Paul and how Meals on Wheels ties into that, I'd love the audience to hear a little bit more about you.

Well, um, I'm a long story short here. So, uh, I actually came to St. Vincent de Paul about 12 years ago. Almost 12 years ago. I've been— I started out as the controller here, so I knew all of the donations and ins and outs, and I've been in contact with Naples Women's Club over the years, and they've, they've helped us extremely. I became the executive director about 5 years ago. I've had over 20 years experience in nonprofit, and that can be anywhere from financial and food assistance, emergency assistance, abuse and neglect and several other avenues. So I'm, I'm very familiar with the nonprofit world, and Naples Women's Club actually has been part of that over the last few years. So I just wanted to say thank you again for that.

Well, I, I've— I wish that I have been involved in the local community in that capacity as long as you have. I've been with Women's club for just over a year now, and I continue to be amazed by the different ways that people use to express and give back. And, you know, certainly the commitment, Kim, for those like yourselves to have turned your talents and energy into helping others is just, to me, I'm humbled by it. I, you know, I'm, I write checks, I Volunteer, but it's not near the commitment that someone like yourself. So thank you for what you do every day to bring joy and food.

It's actually, yeah, and it's actually, it's easy when you have a job that you love, that you know has a purpose, that, you know, fulfills others' needs as well as your own needs. So it helps. It's really nice.

Well, working with passion is huge. I'm a mother of 3 daughters, and I told my girls a long time ago, When you think about what you want to do when you grow up, find what you're passionate about and figure out how to be able to use it to get groceries, but follow your passion because then you don't feel like it's work, right? Exactly.

Exactly.

Through their day, even with your passion, it feels like work.

Exactly.

Well, you wouldn't be normal. Well, can you tell us a little bit, we're going to talk about Meals on Wheels. We had the opportunity to talk to Bill earlier in the week about St. Vincent de Paul and some of the great work at that macro level. I'd love to focus both on Meals on Wheels, but also there's a pantry element to that. So tell us a little bit about that organization's, you know, your focus and what you do.

OK. Meals on Wheels, we've had, actually, we've been doing Meals on Wheels probably 25 years plus, I'm thinking. We serve individual meals once a day to all of our participants. Right now we range anywhere between 135 to 150. We keep trying to, you know, take that number up and find all those seniors that are needing help. We're a little different than the normal Meals on Wheels because we can, we don't necessarily take government assistance for the meals, so what we can do is we can be a little broader in how we help people. We're not so in the box, if you will. So we can help those individuals that are just getting out of the hospital that are going to be alone that need assistance. We can help those individuals that are low income that need assistance throughout. We can help the individuals that have disabilities and maybe are younger than 60 and, you know, sometimes we have those individuals as well that that just, for instance, COVID. I mean, sometimes people need assistance for a month, 2 months, and they don't have anyone else. And then we have a lot of seniors that are in their homes and, you know, they're homebound or they can't get out. And our caseworkers give a little extra effort, if you will. They go in, you know, they go to the homes, and before COVID especially, they were able to talk more to the seniors. We've made efforts to make phone calls to the seniors to make sure everything was okay and, you know, if anything's needed, and a lot of our caseworkers go above and beyond and take other things besides just the meal, and I've known caseworkers to do doctor's visits and home checks and in some cases, I'm glad to say but I hate to say that I think our caseworkers have actually saved lives because they have went to those homes and noticed something was wrong or found something wrong and reported it to authorities and emergency personnel. So we can't be prouder of our caseworkers and our program and what we do with our program for Meals on Wheels.

And that's huge. You think about what a lonely world it can be when your network, your support, is dwindled down to perhaps none. And in some cases, I imagine, Pam, your organization may be the only support these folks may— may see on a regular basis, correct?

Yes, sometimes, yes, absolutely. And you have family members, but when you're down here, some family members are away or they can't be with their parents or they need to rely on somebody else to help those parents or to know that those parents are being, are eating every day. And, you know, we're here to try to do what we can for sure.

And I know, Kim, before we went on live, you talked a little bit about what you guys do on the pantry side as well. Could you share a little bit about that, please?

Well, we're kind of excited about that because we've been a choice pantry to an extent for quite a while. But after COVID, we tried to figure out how could we do the same thing that we were doing before and still give some choice, but to evolve. And with this, we've got a lot of other pantries, as everyone knows, a lot of pantries are stepping up and doing what they can, and especially in these times with people out of work, more food is being given at other local pantries, but what we decided to do is not only give food, but give a bigger choice. So we turned our pantry into what we consider a grocery store setting. And in doing that, we implemented the safety precautions as well— gloves, masks, screens, all of those things— and we're taking individuals, a few at a time, and they're going through the pantry as if it were a grocery store, and we're giving them what we call points. And in those points, they get approximately 150, and they will choose the items that they most need. And we're finding that they're not choosing the things that we thought would happen. They're choosing more paper products and oils and beans and rice and juices and things like that, because a lot of times, those are not the things that they're getting either from other pantries or for, uh, from their food stamps. So it's working out quite well, and we're learning something, and the participants are enjoying it. And we feel like there's less waste going on with, you know, things maybe, you know, some people don't like everything that comes through a pantry, and/or some people use it in different ways. So we're finding out new ways to bring this to the public, and I think we're pleased and the participants are pleased for right now.

No, that's great, and you make a good point because I can remember I talked with someone once who fell on tough times and they would go to the pantries that were available and they talked about, they would go and they would be so thankful for the opportunity, but then they would notice they had expired food or they had, you know, people were dropping off the kind donations, not to be ungrateful, but were dropping off things that they may not have had much, you know, use for, or maybe they just weren't as edible. Not by anybody's intentions, but that need is, is really important to me.

I think our biggest view is the non-perishables. We do mostly non-perishables, but it's the paper products and the shampoos and the soaps and all of those things, because you can't buy those with food stamps, you know. I mean, you go out and you can buy food and you can get food at other pantries, but it's hard to get diapers, if you will. It's hard to get paper towels. It's hard to get, of all things, toilet paper. We all know what the toilet paper is like these days. But yeah, it's, it's working out really well. And it's, it's given us a learning experience as well. So that's always good for us.

Well, I always say, as unfortunate as it is to have a crisis like COVID, it does cause us to think more creatively about how to do what we do and serve others. So, so great. Great way to pivot and show some agility there. Well, Kim, we talked at the start of this segment about the culinary adventure that we hope many will be purchasing tickets to, and we're really excited that so far the initial sales have been really strong, so that's good. But as people step forward and say, "Hey, I'd like to buy a $125 ticket to go participate in this luncheon," they can do so again, not only to enjoy a luncheon, a really good luncheon, but that intrinsic satisfaction of knowing that your ticket purchase will be used to bring value and resources back to the community. Right. Can you talk to us a little bit, you know, Naples Women's Club hopes to be able to do a donation to Meals on Wheels and St. Vincent de Paul. How will some of that funding, you know, what could somebody expect how that'll bring value back to the organization or to the community through your organization.

Well, you know, as I was listening to you earlier and you were talking about helping out the local restaurants and that kind of thing, and that helps keep jobs, which helps us be able to help other individuals. So I think that's a forgotten piece in here, that you're actually helping keep jobs as well. But how those funds would help the other nonprofits, giving a meal to the participants in your culinary event is going to give a meal in our realm. It's going to give those pantry items, it's going to give those Meals on Wheels, it's going to feed those seniors for so many days. So it's, it's really a circle of love, if you will, because you're doing more in that than just give a meal, get a meal, or get a meal, give a meal. It's more of what's happening inside that circle, and you're keeping jobs. And we do financial assistance as well, and you're helping the public keep jobs where we're helping the public try to keep jobs and keep their homes so they can keep their jobs. So we all interconnect, if you will.

So true. So true. You're right. I love the way you talked about it because it is this, this circular sense of being able to touch in so many ways in a positive way. So we hope by watching today, if you weren't already thinking about and racing to the website to get your ticket, I will add, not to take away from the just how powerful these tickets, the donations from these tickets will be. I will add that the first 100 that sign up will be entered into a drawing for a beautiful pearl necklace that one of our members has donated. So again, if a great lunch wasn't enough to entice you to, to purchase a ticket, if knowing the impact of your ticket price will have on multiple tiers of our communities maybe the pearl necklace will be that icing on the cake. And you might just think with Christmas around the corner, let's do this. So I am so appreciative of both your being willing to partner with us to make this event a success, but also everything that you and your staff do day in and day out to support our community. So I'll just leave with one last thing, Kim. If people want to get involved outside of Culinary Adventure, which is going to be, as I have already mentioned, a great opportunity, how can they get tied into your organization if there's additional support they want to give?

Well, we have several avenues. St. Vincent actually has 3 thrift stores here in the Collier County area. They also have the Meals on Wheels program, the pantry program, our caseworking assistance program, and we bring in the 8, churches that are around in the area. So if anybody wants to get involved, they can contact Samantha Maturro here at our number, 775-2907, and just reach out to Samantha about getting involved in doing volunteer work. If they want to help us financially, they can contact Bill Allen, and you know Bill Allen, at the same number, just ask for Bill, and we appreciate All assistance, no matter what.

Well, we hope to see a great group of— not just women, because it's hosted by Women's Club. This event is also open to men. It would be a great luncheon date. You could even buy your spouse or significant other a ticket and send them on their own for a day to enjoy. Whatever you want to do, we will make sure to accommodate. But we're looking forward to 3 great luncheons that we all come together with great energy and spirits and the, um, the openness to give back. So again, Kim, thank you so much for your time both today and on an ongoing basis. And everyone watching, um, again, you can see down below the website, www.culinaryadventurenaples.org. It'll take you right to the site. You can learn more about the event. You can see what 16 restaurants are participating and learn as much as you want. And then on that same site with a click of a button. You can purchase 1, 2, 3, 4, um, however many tickets you'd like. So Kim and I, if I can speak on behalf of you, are appreciative in advance of your generosity.

Good luck and God bless.

You too, Kim, and thank you so much today. Thanks. Bye-bye.