The Power of Philanthropy: How Giving Rewires Your Brain & Strengthens Your Community - Special

[0:00] So, welcome everybody. This is a little bit different look for us here if you are used to the PTCH Podcast. First of all, I’m Dr. Jason Young.

Kathy: Oh, and I’m Dr. Kathy Lynch.

Jason: Sometimes she forgets that.

Kathy: Oh.

Jason: And what we want to do today is we want to give you a bit of a sneak peek into what it might be like if we were able to bring you some extra features. We’re very, very close to being able to offer subscriptions, which is going to give us the chance to give

[0:31] you extra bonus content and everything like that. So, if you downloaded the PTCH Podcast this morning expecting to find a full episode, don’t worry. That’s coming later today. We just put this one out as kind of a little bit of a teaser, spoiler, whatever that is, so that you can see what it might be like. So, we’re super excited today to have a special guest with us. A local guy, a guy that we really like. I’ve known Chris for a while. This is Chris Quaka. And he is the CEO

[1:02] of the Benton County Foundation. So, welcome, Chris.

Chris: Thank you, Jason. Thanks, Kathy, for having me here.

Jason: Yes. Now, Chris has never heard of the PTCH Podcast.

Chris: I was in the office talking with Jason the other week and I said, “I hear you have a podcast. I haven’t been on yet.” And here we are. So, thank you for inviting us.

Jason: And that’s all it takes.

Chris: Swing and shame on you, listeners, if you’re not sharing this podcast with your friends. So that’s my plug.

[1:33] Jason: All right.

Chris: Share, share, share.

Kathy: And actually, that’s what we want to talk about tonight, Chris — or I guess for us it’s tonight, but whatever time people are listening to this — that’s what we want to talk about is sharing with friends. So, first of all, maybe fill us in a little bit about what a foundation does and why are you so tied into giving? Why are you an expert on this, Chris?

Chris: Wow. Well, first of all, thank you for calling me an expert. I think jack of all trades, master of none is usually how I describe myself. So, I appreciate

[2:04] the promotion. Thank you. You know, I’ve been working in the field with nonprofits all over the country for more than 25 years. I was really fortunate to find our family land in Corvallis about 10 years ago. And I’ve been at the foundation almost that entire time. And what I really appreciate being able to come and talk to you about is how we can get joy and feel gratitude by giving to each other. But really, there are studies out there that are starting to percolate out in the broader community that we’ve

[2:34] known about in philanthropy for years — about how when you help other people and look outside of the challenges in your own life, how it improves your personal health, your well-being, and your ability to help more people than you could have ever imagined. So a lot of —

Jason: Are you saying this is science?

Chris: Science-based. Great universities — Cornell, Harvard — leaders in the field of psychology talking about how you can get a physical benefit in your life by helping the people around you.

[3:04] Jason: All right. I love it.

Kathy: Yeah. You know, foundations — their job is to deliver and make impact in communities, generally through philanthropic giving. But we talk about how people can give to each other in three ways: time, talent, and treasure. Of course, we think about —

Jason: I only have one of those things.

Chris: Well, I’m fortunate to work with people that have an abundance of all. And what’s great is that there are all these different kinds of ways you can give.

[3:34] Even if it’s not financial, you can give of your time, you can give of yourself. And we recently just completed a feasibility study at the foundation asking the question of what makes our community so vibrant. I don’t know if your listeners know too much about Corvallis or Benton County. 100,000 people.

Jason: They only know the good stuff. So they know about Corvallis High School. Yes.

Kathy: Encore Physical Therapy. That’s right.

Jason: Oh, good. Health.

Chris: Yeah.

Jason: Those are the best things in the community. I love it.

[4:04] Chris: Well, so when we think about all the great attributes our community has, when we talk to people in our community and ask them, “What do you love? What do you find the most vital or vibrant part of our community?” They said it’s people. And we work with nonprofits and people, and so we said, “Well, how do nonprofits mix into this?” And they said, “Well, it’s the nonprofits — they create an opportunity for people to connect with each other.” Right? And so we see this idea on a small scale. Harvard University has been running for more than 80

[4:36] years a survey on finding joy and longevity in your life, and they find it’s personal relationships — more than genes, more than healthy eating and the Blue Zones we all hear about. It’s those personal relationships that help us have longevity and health throughout our lives.

Kathy: Yeah. There are studies that — long, long — that the most important thing to longevity is actually social connection. It’s not about what you eat, how you work out. It’s social connections. Now, my grandma would have said

[5:06] one scotch a night will get you to 90 years old. But science tells us that social connection is the most important thing for longevity.

Chris: Well, and we do — you know, we talk about giving and people think about money, but they really don’t think about those other parts: your time and your talent. And by giving your time you connect with other people, and by sharing a piece of yourself to help someone else, you really get a lot back in spades.

[5:36] And we see that, and I’ve seen that all over the country. I’ve worked with nonprofits after disasters and also nonprofits in everyday life trying to help improve communities across the country, and you see joy in volunteering, a sense of accomplishment, and a sense of purpose and your ability to give back to your community.

Kathy: That’s — I think it’s a really sharp thing, like our brand that we’ve built. I think I’ve said this before on the podcast, but I get a lot out of being able to

[6:06] connect with my patients, being able to laugh with my patients, and that is an important part of the secret sauce at Body of Health. So if I was told that I can only do one intervention, and one intervention only, for the rest of my career, it’s going to be that piece where we can connect and talk, because that improves people’s health so much. It improves mine — I feel better at the end of the day, sometimes.

Jason: Sometimes.

[6:38] Jason: Yeah. So what are some of the findings that they’ve come up with? I’m really intrigued by this 80-year study from Harvard. Kathy: Yeah, that’s really well-known and I’d like to talk about today’s generation. So the 80-year study from Harvard, it’s pretty easy. It’s in the Gazette. You can find it online. Basically, they picked in 1938, they picked young people, basically teenagers and early 20s. Only some of these people are alive today, and started measuring

[7:08] all these — it was whether it’s wealth, zip codes, what you’re eating, your accessibility to private quality healthcare — and time and time again they came back to this connection with each other. And they have a great TED YouTube video that is going to describe it so much better than me, so if you look up Harvard health findings 80-year study and the TED talk, it’s 15 minutes and it’s gold. And it really talks about what we’re doing here — sharing community. I’m learning about your podcast. We’re

[7:38] cracking jokes and talking about how we help improve people’s lives, but we all know each other and live in the same community. So it’s really talking about how we connect and how we can help each other grow. What about in your capacity and what you do? Like, are you noticing this type of thing with the people who give to your foundation, and also — I mean, your foundation does a lot of giving too, right? Yeah. This year we’re in the privileged position of being able to deliver $1.8 million to — yeah, it’s a

[8:11] great year. When I first got here, we couldn’t crack $800,000 a year. So Jason: Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah. So a short seven years later, we’re at $1.8 million, hoping we hit $1.9 by the end of the year. And

[8:41] we do that work through helping students go to college, but really working with nonprofits and learning from them how we can help them lift up their mission. So, you know, community foundations aren’t out there saying, as a fund, this is what you have to do. We’re saying, can we partner with you? Can we work together? And what are you trying to accomplish? And can we help you get there? And we’re lucky to be in that role. And it’s very unique. There’s only about 900 community foundations across the entire country, and every state and region works a little bit differently, but in our work we talk with people all the time who’ve lived here for a long time or are just moving into the region and they want to get involved. But we know one of those big areas of connection is religion. We know a big area of connection is education. We

[9:11] have a land grant college in Corvallis. We also know a big area of connection is — Jason: Go Beavers! — is the social connections we make through service clubs. But if we look at the longitudinal studies, we see that all of those areas where people traditionally connect in our country are declining, and people are seeking connection. So we don’t lead with what treasure do you have to give. We lead with what gives you joy. What do you love about where you live? What

[9:42] are the people in your life that you admire? And is there something we can do together to bring you joy, like you see others having? And I’m very fortunate to do that work, but I would say that is where the work we do is very rich in the community. And it’s important to deliver those dollars, and we work hard to deliver as much as we can every year. Our partners depend on us, and also the donors and funding partners we work with, they’re excited about partnering to make

[10:12] our community better. So it’s really — it’s not a new social structure, but that idea of giving together. We can help expand that community lead through our community leadership work. What are some of the nonprofits that you work with and that you kind of grant money to? Yeah, so this year we’re working with nonprofits in the social service sector.

[10:43] With the recent cut off of SNAP benefits, we did a special release and worked with donors. Right now we’ve released about $80,000 in the last three weeks of new and special funds. Some of them come from our operations that help us keep the lights on. But we partner with donors and we are delivering those funds to rural nonprofits throughout Benton County. Monroe — to a food bank and a community center in Monroe. Way out in Summit, which is right on the edge of our county and close to the Siletz Tribal Reservation. So way out there in Nashville and Summit, we’re delivering some funds. But then right

[11:14] here out our back door with Linn-Benton Food Share, and also with a new food bank that just popped up in Adair Village, which is growing very quickly. They served 300 families in October, 350 families in November, and they’re already at 400 this month. So we’re able to support unique situations like that regularly. We’re funding all kinds of areas — youth, children, arts and culture, community

[11:45] betterment, and what I would say is the environment, which we all love here in Oregon, and we do a lot of funding in that area as well. Love me some environment. Yeah. Well, and one of our friends over at Greenbelt Land Trust, they would tell you that your health is really improved by getting outside. And Jessica and the team over there, they’re fantastic. And they’ve taken a real approach to saying access to the outdoors — of course, we all learned that during COVID — is so important to your health. And they’re a leader in that

[12:15] field, of course. So is the hospital that we work with, but it’s a little different when nonprofits that are trying to serve everyday needs of community members are doing that work. You can have a doctor or physician doing that work through a nonprofit hospital like we have through Good Samaritan, or the Corvallis Clinic, but then you also have individual nonprofits working on the ground like Greenbelt trying to get people outside and be healthy. So we — I’m sorry — we’re in a pretty great environment and a community that

[12:45] really focuses on helping each other and that’s why we’re able to do all this work and why we really exist. Jason: That’s awesome. And you know, you brought up CO and I think it’s interesting because in preparation, I actually prepared for this episode, y’all. First time — first time I’ve decided to do that for one of these broadcasts. I’m just gonna — I’m prepared. All right. Kathy: One out of 35. Jason: One out of 35. Right. Kathy: That makes me feel better. I watched a podcast before I came. Jason: Okay. All right. Yeah. Oh, man.

[13:15] You’re going to have fun binging this. Kathy: No. But as I was looking at this, there’s a significant amount of research that was done around the pandemic because that drastically impacted some of these social connections that we have. And you were talking about how we have some of these social institutions that have declined and then what has taken their place is social media. And social media isn’t always

[13:45] really healthy. Social media — I call it an emotion engine. You’re either going to find stuff that you really love or that you really hate and you find nothing in between because they’re kind of mining our interaction. And so there’s one study that I saw that was really interesting and it actually dealt with social anxiety and what they found is that service is actually an excellent

[14:16] treatment for social anxiety. So if you have social anxiety you find a way to serve in your community and it tends to be a good treatment for your social anxiety. And I wonder if maybe that’s because some people when they have some of these social anxiety issues, which seems to be more and more common all the time now, I wonder if what they just need is quality interactions.

[14:46] I don’t know. So can you think of maybe a particular instance when maybe you’ve seen somebody do service or philanthropy or something like that — and a lot of times we’re thinking about how that impacts the people who are receiving — like what have you seen in terms of how it impacts the people that are giving. Kathy: Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. I don’t know if you know this about me, but I have a background in AmeriCorps

[15:16] and I used to work for the Corporation for National and Community Service. So they were a federal agency that delivered AmeriCorps programs, which before this year were engaging nearly 90,000 Americans a year in public service in their home communities. And for five years I ran teams of 18 to 24 year olds that did service work in teams of 12 all over the east coast. Jason: God bless you.

[15:48] Kathy: I was in my late 20s at that point and I’m a parent today and I have everything figured out for when my kids turn like 19 and start getting into trouble from that experience. Jason: You just got to get them there. You just got to get them there. Kathy: It’s the gap. But you know, what I saw in young people who travel from all over the country — you put them through a little bit of training and they’re working with people. The team that I served on 25 plus years ago, there were 13 of

[16:18] us. There were people from nine different religions, from eight different regions in the country, all working together, living together, traveling in a van, and going all over the country. And that experience changed my life. And then as I became a staff member and led teams every year doing that work, you saw people that were fired up about helping their communities. And I regularly run into — just last week I was in a rural part of our county and we are delivering

[16:50] food cards as part of this distribution — cards to help families access food while we’re funding nonprofits so they can operate to hand out the cards and the food. And I’m delivering food cards and I see a person in a community with about 800 residents and she’s got a patch on her shoulder that says AmeriCorps. Jason: And she’s a little bit more experienced than me — a little older. Kathy: Yeah, that’s your way of saying older. Okay, gotcha. Jason: I’m getting there. But I said, “Oh my gosh, I had no idea you’re an

[17:20] AmeriCorps member.” And she’s like, “You’re an AmeriCorps member?” And she is a volunteer that runs their food bank, is a volunteer at the local church, is a volunteer XYZ. And so what we find when people serve — whether it’s in AmeriCorps or in their home communities — is that it gives them a sense of purpose. Jason: Mhm. Just this October, the Washington Post put out some research that is still being peer reviewed from Cornell University and they’ve been studying the

[17:50] last six years basically how the new generation — right, we could talk about people who’ve been studying for 80 years, but I’ve got kids who are teenagers and I want to know how to help them out and we’re always talking to them about purpose, just like I know you’re all talking with your kids about that. And the research took 1,200 college students and gave them $400. And said, “Give this money out to somebody else. Make a difference in someone else’s life or purchase something that doesn’t affect you but impacts the people around you.” And they came back

[18:20] six weeks later. And for those students that received that grant, they went through the roof on all these different markers about community engagement, sense of self, feeling of self-worth, measuring their purpose in their everyday work. And it just shows that — and I think that’s the challenge with social media. Social media gets a lot of stuff going up here, right? A lot of things between the ears and we’re looking at our phones and we’re going back and forth and maybe reading things we shouldn’t

[18:50] about what’s going wrong in the world and then the algorithm just keeps feeding it to us. But when we talk to people around us and have a chance to interact in community, it really provides a sense of purpose for who we could be or what we could do. And that’s what this study shows. And you know, a lot of people are calling this new generation the lost generation. You know, I remember that being applied to us. And really, I think we have to remember that these are young people coming into their own. And what tools are we giving them? Well, the tool we’ve given them is a phone

[19:22] Kathy: and that doesn’t help you connect with the person sitting next to you. Jason: Yeah, that is the truth. Kathy: I think I’m speaking here though. Jason: Yeah. Yeah. I’ve been involved with Stone Soup Corvallis since 2016 and I used to cook on Saturday mornings and that was one of my favorite things to do — Saturday mornings — and it’s funny how you talk about making connections and the diversity of the people that were in the kitchen with

[19:53] me. I call them friends now, but these people in their 70s and 80s, we’ll still be like, “Hey, you want to go get a cocktail?” And so, again, it made me feel more connected to the community there. That was a time at that point in my life where I felt like I needed to put positive energy out in the world. And I like to work with my hands and I like to just do busy work, right? I actually don’t have to make a decision. I just need to cut

[20:23] potatoes and somebody tells me what to do. I just wanted to go and clean some dishes and feed some people and it made me a better person and it made me more connected to the community. Exactly what you’re talking about. Jason: Well, it’s a great organization run by volunteers with a soul for helping other people. And it was actually the leaders of Stone Soup — a woman by the

[20:54] name of Sarah — that got us involved in the pandemic. There’s a lot of things happening in communities all over our country and we don’t have all the resources to go out and get them, and certainly with all the changing ways the government is funding nonprofits, there’s no money in private philanthropy to make up for those large changes in funding. Kathy: Yeah. Jason: Stone Soup and Sarah — when the pandemic happened, she called and said, “What could the foundation do to get involved?” And it was that request.

[21:24] Sometimes it’s just asking, Kathy, like you’re serving food that creates that connection that then creates a spark. And so you said 2016. Kathy: Yeah. Jason: Nine years. How do you feel today? Are you still connected with the people there and still doing the work? Kathy: Yeah. I’m not cooking as much. I’m on the board now. Jason: All right. So yeah. Kathy: Okay. Jason: Yeah, we got another talent. Look at that talent. That’s perfect. Kathy: Yeah. Yeah. So it’s been great. We just hired a new executive director, so we took a big step up. Yeah. So yeah.

[21:57] Yeah. I love it. Jason: That’s great. Kathy, what are you doing for other people? I know you’re a really giving guy. I know you’re not always at work. Kathy: No, I mostly like to go in my house and lock my door. I got these books on this bookshelf behind me. No. Well, you know, I’ll just brag on my wife for a second here. This year, coming into Thanksgiving and everything, and with all the slowdown and the SNAP

[22:28] money, she came up with this idea. She said, “I want to set up a table in the lobby of our clinic — our clinics.” We actually have two now. But she wanted to set up this table with a sign that just said, “Give what you can, take what you need.” And so yeah, it was great. So I’m obedient. I listened to her and I set up the table. I got some stuff from Costco and I put it out there and put up the sign and I was thinking, “Okay,

[22:58] well, even if somebody just takes the stuff I bought at Costco, cool.” That’s fine. So there were people that came in and at first it was like, “Oh, you guys are doing a food drive.” It’s like, “Well, it’s not really a food drive. It’s like you can take whatever it is that you need and if you have a little extra, give some.” Kathy: Yeah. Jason: And it was really sweet just to see people do both. And there are some people that I know just didn’t have a lot. Like, we

[23:30] have some homeless people that we treat. And they took some things, but they also gave some things. And I think that having a way where they can give really made them happy. And so that was a really great thing that warmed my heart. And I’m going to be honest with you, I don’t like all of my patients. Oh jeez, I said it. Yeah. But we’re kind to

[24:01] everybody because that’s the job and it’s the right thing to do. And the ones that I don’t like, usually it’s because they’re not kind to us. They’re not kind to my front desk. They’re not kind to other people. And it was really neat, especially around that time, to see some of — I’m thinking about that Grinch Who Stole Christmas cartoon where the ice around his heart melts, right? And it was nice to see some of

[24:31] that ice melt in some people who really are pretty unpleasant. Like, you see the person in there, right? And there’s a person inside of everybody. There’s what we get on the outside and then there’s all the rest of it. And so service — an opportunity to not just take but also to give — I think it’s a really powerful thing. Can I get

[25:01] nerdy for just a second? Kathy: For sure. Jason: Because with this — I think sometimes people might listen to this and they’ll be like, “Oh, duh. Yeah, giving stuff feels good.” But it actually changes your brain to give things. They’ve done neuroimaging studies where they see that the parts of your brain that are associated with stress become less active whenever you are giving and engaging in things like that. And there are other studies kind of like the one you talked about from Cornell. I know there’s one where they gave people gift cards that they could give out to people and after they gave the gift card they measured some of these markers and found people had reductions in heart rate, blood pressure

[26:01] And things like that. And so what we’re saying is if you want to cure your high blood pressure, you got to give people gift cards. Good. This is probably where it’s time to give the disclaimer that we’re not giving medical advice, right? That’s great. No, this is just for entertainment. Well, I’m questioning when you say the clients you like and wondering how I got on this podcast. So, we talk about that later. Chris — HIPAA. HIPAA. Oh, sorry. All right.

[26:31] We can delete that part. We’ll delete that part. Hey, you know, you can say what you want. I’m limited as to what I can say. So, you can — so Jason, let me — I want to tie back because you were nerdy before you got into the neuroscience. I want to just give you some credit here. So going back to this Cornell study, it actually says it suggests that the contributions we make toward fulfilling our purpose don’t need to be a major life-changing thing. So the story you shared just about a person putting in a can, taking a can, just that little bit

[27:02] extra. You know, philanthropy is a big word. It doesn’t speak to me. I don’t think it speaks to our generation. People think they need to be rich to be a philanthropist. Every year we have this big event, right? And we bring people together in community and what we talk about is giving back. How can we help each other? And we hear these great stories about organizations and individuals, businesses, and I guarantee you if you open your eyes and you ask, “How can I give back?” you’re going to have people come to you and say, “Here’s five

[27:32] or six ways.” And it’s not financial. It is of your time. Kathy, your story about — I’ve gone from ladling rice and eggs and washing dishes to I’m on the board like we — and I’m having cocktails. That’s what I heard. Yeah. Those more experienced people home after a cocktail or two. But I will say that like you’re hitting on all the points, right? And you know, I didn’t start out in

[28:03] philanthropy or giving back. I started as a volunteer myself. My mom told me today, and I don’t know if you remember your first time volunteering. I remember it very clearly as an eight-year-old boy ringing bells for the Salvation Army at our local Kmart, which dates me in all these ways that doesn’t even exist anymore. But I don’t know how — how my mom, a mother of three boys, maybe it’s because I was the middle child, she had to, you know — busy, but my mom was — You should have your mom on. Yeah. And we ring bells for the Salvation Army

[28:34] and asked people for dimes and quarters and nickels and pennies. And gosh darn it, every year we went back to that Kmart five, six years, or at our church we had a Thanksgiving meal and we volunteered and what you got for volunteering was a meal for your family, but we’d serve mashed potatoes. And I was a little kid that would take the order in the line like what’s your name and what did you order and I’d run it back to the kitchen and run back. You know, there’s a place for anyone to give back and it can be small, it can be big, but we just got to start doing it because that social connection piece you

[29:05] get is just so important to our well-being. Okay. Well, we’re not going to take too much of your time. And so, here’s what I want from you. Okay. I want you to give me like three just easy action items that the average person listening to this regardless of where they are — three easy action items that somebody could do today that would allow them to experience some of these benefits and I’m taking a

[29:35] long time to ask a question so that you can come up with just these three simple steps, right? And then after that I want you to tell us a little bit about the Benton County Foundation, what people can do if they want to support you and your mission, how they can find out more about it. Well, thank you. Thank you. So, couple things I do as part of my weekly routine, right? Because sometimes it takes a little time for us to get to all these things. Three things. First, call someone you admire and tell them you care about them and what they’re doing for your community.

[30:06] This could be a leader of a church. This could be a leader of a nonprofit. It could be a friend in your walking group every day, but share some appreciation with a person in your life. And what would be the worst thing is that that person doesn’t know the impact you’re making in their life and also the impact they’re making in other people’s lives who aren’t giving them a call. So, a call of appreciation. I’m doing that once a week with people that I admire in the community, nonprofit leaders that inspire me to get out of bed on those tough days, right? Mhm.

[30:36] You know, number two, I think I would always encourage people to look for opportunities to give of yourself. So that can be — that one day you might not want to say hello to someone, but you can throw a couple of coins in that Salvation Army jar, right? So that kid at that non-existent Kmart, you know, or you go to the store and you get four cans of beans for a buck, right? and you get that special deal and you’re walking out the store and someone’s looking for cans for a food drive, you’re out a buck. Drop

[31:07] those cans in that food drive, right? You can give a little bit of yourself and in so many ways throughout a week. You only have to do it once, right? We’re talking about three things. And then the third thing, and I think this can lead to giving of financial resources, but doesn’t always, is find something you’re passionate about in your life that you think you could bring out to other people. And what I’m passionate about really is helping people find what makes them happy, what

[31:37] their joy is, because that is what makes our work go. And so find that piece of joy in you and find a way to give it out. I love Kathy, your story about I didn’t expect this at first and I just wanted to help serve people food and now you’re a leader at Stone Soup and these times they still need your leadership. So find the thing you’re passionate about and find a way to share it. Those are three easy things that you can do just over the course of a week and

[32:07] and make it happen. And I think you could call — I’ll just say you could call Kathy, you could call Jason — and I think they’d help you out. I think they help you find a place. Yeah. So, the Benton Community Foundation — just to how we get involved and how you could help us — is that we want to hear your stories about what you love in our community and we want to know how you think we can impact the community through your help. So, we’re always looking for board members and community volunteers. We’re always trying to connect people about unique projects.

[32:38] And we’re fortunate to be in a community that people want to help each other, and we connect people. And so if you’re interested in doing any of those things, love to connect. We have a website. Yes. What’s the website? Yeah. www.bcfgives.org. Benton Community Foundation gives.org. You get on that website. You can donate. You can see some of the things we’re doing. You can ask to get on a call with any of our great staff members. And we have people here that are trying

[33:08] to connect people who want to help in the community with people in the community that need help. And we’re in a fortunate place that we can pick up the phone and find people resources and create a network so that people can help each other. And I’d say one of the things that we’re working on right now, if you wanted to give a donation, is we are still responding to the SNAP benefit food crisis. So, listen, there’s a lot of stuff out there in the media and you can read the ups and downs — are blue states

[33:39] getting money, are people required to do work requirements, what’s in the big beautiful bill — all those things. There’s nothing we as a community can do to change those things. What we can do is help our neighbor. So BCF, since the governor of Oregon declared a disaster declaration — which is still ongoing for SNAP benefits — is donating all of the funds that we would normally provide as part of our community grant program. Any dollar you donate to our community grant fund at BCF right now will go towards

[34:11] providing food gift cards and support to families in need of food in Benton County and beyond. And we’re doing a lot of work in rural Benton County right now because those communities need help. They are the kind of the bouncing points from people coming into our county, and they need the support, and our rural community does not have the resources of a community like Corvallis does. And so we’ve been very fortunate. Not only have we put about

[34:42] $60,000 of BCF’s operational funds to get this thing started, but we’re at about another $20,000 in community gifts. And any gift you make through our website — there would be a fee from the bank, but we’re not charging any fees right now to respond. So, less that bank fee that we all pay for whatever we’re buying, all that money will go right through the foundation to the community to help people access food. And we funded organizations like the South Benton County Food Pantry, Phomith Community

[35:12] Services, and Linn-Benton Food Share, and we’ll continue to do that work. We’re always doing that work. We’re always funding those organizations. But this is a unique time that if you want to give a gift — $5, $10, $500, $5,000 — we will pass it through and we will get it to people in need, and we’ll follow through on trying to help you help some other people get access to food during this holiday season. Outstanding. That is excellent. Yeah.

[35:42] Yeah. Well, we were so lucky to have you on, Chris. Thank you for that. I know. I feel good now. Well, and I think that that’s another amazing thing about giving service and philanthropy and things like that — is every time that you remember having done that, you get to experience some of those good benefits again. So, it is truly the thing that will make the world better and make us all healthier. So, really appreciate

[36:12] that. Um, so I think that’ll wrap it up for us this little mini episode. Hopefully people have liked it. What would be great is if people would get in the comments. We want to hear about what are you doing. What’s meaningful to you when you give, when you serve? What are some — maybe even — what are some ways that people serving have benefited or impacted your life? Definitely, if you want to get involved in this community, get in touch

[36:42] with the BCF. It’s bcfgives.org. Yes. bcfgives.org. Yes. Okay. And we’ll be sure to put that in the show notes so that anybody who wants to get in touch with Chris or any of his people can do that. And if you’re not in this community, if you’re not in this area, I know that those resources are out there. So reach out to the folks around you. Let’s just take care of each other. Kathy, takeaways. Well, Chris, thank you so much. And

[37:12] thank you so much for the continued important work that you’re doing. I know, one of the benefits — the other thing that I learned at Stone Soup — is that the people in Corvallis, they really truly care about their community. And I think this is a special place to live. And I’m sure there’s a lot of special places across the country as well. But it’s people like you that make Corvallis special. So, huge thank you, especially at this time of

[37:42] need. Because when you give to the Linn-Benton Food Share, you’re giving to Stone Soup, too, right? Because that’s where we get a lot of our food. So, we really appreciate what you’re doing in the community. Thank you so much. Well, thank you for having me, and I just admire both of your work and I know you’re doing a lot in the community and thanks for this opportunity to talk about how we can help each other. And I’ll just say, Kathy, you’re exactly right. The spirit of giving — it’s out there everywhere.

[38:12] You just got to find it in your community, but it’s there. You’re right. Thank you. Yeah. Excellent. Yes. And we’re going to let you go, Chris, so that you can start binge watching the PTCH Podcast, learn a little bit about us. Oh, but Kathy, I do think there’s one more important thing that we need to get to, and that’s there’s no I in PTCH.