Your Dollars In Action

Because we had such a great response to our first Hope Run (raising more than $12,000 for KBP employees) we want to do it again with a new challenge for the winter! We are excited to announce our 2nd (virtual) KBP Cares 5K Hope Run.

We set out to raise $475,000 for KBP Cares employees for 2021, and we only have $19,000 to go by the end of the year! What better way to reach our goal than to join together, across the country, to support each other and get a little exercise at the same time? Complete this run (or walk) anytime, anywhere during the weekend of Dec.3-5, and help us continue proving HOPE to KBP Cares employees. Everybody who registers gets a custom t-shirt.

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

• Register for the KBP Cares Hope Run via this link by Nov. 19 to receive your free t-shirt in time for the race.

• Complete the 5K (3.1 miles) at your convenience the weekend of Dec. 3-5.

• Celebrate your accomplishment by sharing pictures on the KBP Cares Facebook and Instagram pages. Please include the hashtag #KPBCares in your social posts to be entered into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card.

• Additional details can be found on the registration link listed above.

Donations in addition to the run fee will go toward our $19,000 goal. We hope you, along with your friends and family, will join us Dec 3-5. Have a blast, let's see your pics (#KBPCares) and thank you for supporting KBP Cares!

With gratitude,

KBP Cares Team

Gracie has been a dedicated employee of KBP Brands in the Kansas City market for over three years now. She was working tirelessly for her store, willing to fill in for staff vacancies from place to place all over the Kansas City area when needed as employment has fluctuated during this difficult time.

She was more than happy to travel from here to there, all the while she hadn’t expressed that she didn’t have reliable transportation of her own. Scott Duke, Senior Vice President of Operations, soon learned from Gracie’s Area Coach, Xavier Echeverria, that she had been borrowing her parent’s car or getting rides as she could to make it to these locations around her market.

Scott Duke is a passionate supporter of our program and reached out to the Cares team to see how we could help. Luckily, we had just been gifted a generous donation by Christie Hughes, Senior Vice President of Development, a spacious mini-van in great condition. These serendipitous events gave us the opportunity to award the van to Gracie, helping her to make her extraordinary work ethic easier to manage.

A story like hers just goes to show what can be accomplished when the KBP Brands team works closely with and in support of KBP Cares; together we can achieve so much more and help KBP employees in unimaginable ways.

“I am blessed and there are no words and many emotions to describe of this special gift. I can’t say enough Thank Yous to Scott Duke who knows his Team and their needs. Thank you to Kristen Deladurantaye and Terri Harvey as I am sure there was a lot of work to make this wish a reality. Honored to be part of KBP Cares who gives back to our Team,”

Graciela

Cynthia Gonzales adopted her grandson, Jeremiah, when he was only a year old after being hospitalized for the second time within six months. Jeremiah suffered post-traumatic brain damage from apparent suffocation, which caused bleeding between his skull and brain. As a result, he has no mobility, is partially blind, cannot swallow, and eats through a GI tube. Jeremiah also suffers from seizures and has multiple sclerosis.

Jeremiah is now ten, and due to his conditions, he has many doctor appointments. To get Jeremiah in the car, Cynthia has to lift him out of his wheelchair into a car seat in her SUV, then load the wheelchair in the back of her vehicle. Once arriving at their location, she has to do this all again to get Jeremiah out of the car. This process is wearing on Cynthia and is getting more difficult as Jeremiah continues to grow.

For the past several years, Cynthia has been raising money for a handicap van. When KBP Cares received her application, she had raised all but $5,000 toward the vehicle. Because of your donations, KBP Cares was able to complete Cynthia's wish, so she could have the van she so desperately needed.

“I want to send a very special thank you and a bear hug to everyone that helped fund our new van,”

Cynthia Gonzales

Jamie Tedford came to us with a hardship that at first, we didn’t understand but, after working with her, listening, and learning of her situation we found a way to help her out of the hardship.

Her family’s trailer home was sinking into their foundation, putting the safety of her spouse and children at risk. Their land had flooded and caused the back of her mobile home to become unstable and uneven with their front-end. Slowly, this issue was pulling the center of their home apart, with the trailer being pulled in different directions from each side.

Jamie searched for solutions on her own for months, all the while her home continued to deteriorate– causing stress and fear for her whole family. She reached out to contactors, both private and large businesses; no matter where she looked the cost was just not something they could afford along with their basic living expenses. She even looked into taking money from her personal retirement savings that she’d paid into slowly to keep her family secure for years to come; the financial penalties and fees for pulling from this fund made it seem like another option that just wouldn’t work.

With time running out, she finally reached out to KBP Cares for help. She sent us several estimates she’d collected for the repairs and the cheapest of the pile would still have cost her an entire month’s income.

She took the time to explain her hardship and worked with our advocates to collect what she needed to finish the application. Together we created a grant application with documentation that didn’t stand a chance of being denied for approval by our committee. Thankfully, she was quickly approved, and we covered the full balance of her home repairs before it was too late, and she’d have to say goodbye to her family home.

She was thrilled and without worry after she got the news of her grant award; she had this to say to about our team and grant program:

“KBP Cares when times are rough. When you feel like there is no way out or around your situation, KBP Cares is there to help you through it.”

Jessica Marks was diagnosed with an aortic dissection, a serious condition in which a tear occurs in the inner layer of the body’s main artery, affecting vital blood flow through and from the heart. Unfortunately, this issue quickly led to others and began to cause chronic aneurysms – preventing her from working full 8 hour shifts at her store indefinitely. With a family of four to take care of, she continued working as best she could to make ends meet.

Her bills continued to pile up while she had no choice but to work reduced hours to maintain her health. She then required an emergency surgery, which was another financial blow she just couldn’t find a way to manage. The urgent surgery on her heart and aortic artery couldn’t wait for her bills and struggles to slow down. Even after making it through this difficult procedure, her medical concerns didn’t stop there; complications resulted from her heart surgery and she was soon rushed into another procedure, this time for her spine. With all this going on, she had to remain on medical leave for over two months. She started to fall behind on her rent and utilities so drastically after this, that once she applied for KBP Cares’ assistance, her electric was set to be shut off the same week.

Our team worked with her to understand this extreme hardship she’d just been through and walked her through the application process expediently. Thankfully we came through with a grant award, catching her up on all her overdue rent and utilities so she wouldn’t have to carry the stress of debt and how she’d care for her children on top of her physical pain.

After we completed the process, she felt relieved and had hope that she could move forward on her own, all her debts a thing of the past. She had this to say to about her experience,

“KBP Cares is an awesome program to have through my job! I am truly blessed and thankful for the help I received! Thank you especially to the advocates who were with me every step of the way! I've been having serious medical issues with my heart since 2017 and recently had to have surgery, so I haven't been working. Me and my four children were in a bind. My manager mentioned the program to me, and it went from there. KBP Cares thank you guys so much, y’all are truly amazing and such a blessing to people in a time of need! May God Bless You All!”