← RKD Group: Thinkers
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- [00:00]
A
When I first started here, it's like I don't want to do any fundraising. But slowly over time, you realize it's not just like you asking people for money, it's really just building connections with people and whether that's a volunteer who emails us, a new volunteer that wants to start up with us. I really got to the point where I needed to find some space for me personally and kind of move on and find a new chapter and kind of find a new Becky. So I retired in my early 40s. I spent a couple, well, about a year off, you know, really kind of working on myself and trying to figure out what was next. And during that year that I was off, I volunteered at the St. Croix Valley Food bank at least weekly. And then I got asked to come back and do some office work. I started packing food and distributing food and then was asked to come back to the office and start doing some office work. And that evolved into them offering me an amazing part time job where I get to work with our volunteers a lot.
- [01:15]
B
Welcome to the RKD Group Chat podcast where we bring you behind the scenes of nonprofit life. We shed light on the compassion and purpose behind the individuals solving the world's most challenging problems. I'm your host, Nipa Eason. Today we're chatting with Becky Ruska from St. Croix Valley Food bank in Wisconsin. Becky has been there from the beginning and leads their volunteers and spreads awareness about the food bank's great work in the community. I loved hearing about her journey starting in retail and bringing those skills to the nonprofit community. She took a moment and actually thought through what she wanted and how she wanted to contribute to the community around her. Let's chat. Hi, Becky, it is so nice to see you and I'm so excited to have this conversation with you today. How are you?
- [01:57]
A
Hi, Nipa. Thanks for having me and happy New Year. I'm happy to be on the podcast today talking about the St. Croix Valley Food Bank. Yeah.
- [02:06]
B
So you basically started at the food bank's inception, right? You started with them when they kind of started out. Can you talk a little bit about how that is? Because I feel like starting a food bank seems like a really, really ambitious endeavor.
- [02:22]
A
Yeah, yeah. It's been a crazy four and a half years. We were located here in Hudson, Wisconsin for the last four and a half years. Previous to that second harvest, Heartland out of Minnesota was servicing this area and the demand and need was just growing. And so western Wisconsin was the only part of Wisconsin that didn't have a food bank. So Second Harvest Heartland came to the United Way here in the St. Croix Valley and said, we really need to, you know, work with you guys to get a food bank started. So we spun off from the United Way. The United Way actually ran it for about a year, year and a half while we were establishing where the food bank would be, how to get food, obviously board members, staff members, team members. So all of that kind of happened over that year and a half while the, while the United Way had us and then they were able to get aboard, we were able to find a rented and leased space, able to get those connections to start getting the food. And four and a half years later, we're now distributing just under 5 million pounds of food here to the four counties in Western Wisconsin.
- [03:35]
B
That's amazing.
- [03:36]
A
Yeah, yeah. So we've grown to have over 55 partners. So we rely on those partners to really provide the food to the local communities over western Wisconsin. And we've grown that number significantly over the four and a half years of people and places that we can help. So pantries, backpack programs, homeless shelters, those are all part of our programs.
- [04:02]
B
Wow, that's so, that's so great. And you guys have grown so much that now you're building your own facility, right?
- [04:07]
A
We are. Some exciting news that just came out at the end of 2025. We broke ground. As I mentioned earlier, we are in a leased, rented space, and we have a lot of space constraints when it comes to both our frozen and our refrigerated food. And we just can't have a freezer here because it's a rented space. So we actually have to rent a semi trailer that's our freezer that has to run 365 days a year to keep cold. And it's just one freezer, one freezer trailer. And it's just, it's not enough space for the food that we need to feed those four counties. We actually have to turn away food that is donated and needs a place to go because we often don't have the room to store both, you know, like, fresh vegetables or frozen meat. So we really needed this new facility to be able to expand, expand and service more people in the western Wisconsin, in the St. Croix Valley region. So it's really going to be exciting. You know, we have our, our sights set on, you know, 7 to 8 million pounds of food once, once we get to our new facility. And it's definitely a very exciting time here at the St. Croix Valley Food Bank.
- [05:22]
B
Yeah. Congratulations. That's such a huge. That's an amazing success story for how you're, how you're providing the service to the community. I mean, that's like. Yeah, just the growth of it. I mean, it highlights the need for sure. And we know the need is there. And so being able to provide that service in an effective way and accepting all those donations, that's amazing. I'm going to backtrack a little bit because your background is very interesting because you didn't start out in nonprofits. I didn't either. And so I always like to hear how you kind of made your way from, from your initial career path into, into what you're doing now.
- [06:01]
A
Sure, yeah. Very different. I spent about 24 years working for Express, the retail company and was a district manager for them for the last 10 years of my career with them. Traveled a lot, opened a lot of stores, found a lot of success, and being a retail district manager and with all of the travel and the work, once again, being in retail, you don't get a lot of days off. Your stores are pretty much open seven days a week, you know, 12 to 14 hours a day. And so I really got to the point where I needed to find some space for me personally and kind of move on and find a new chapter and kind of find a new Becky. So, um, I retired in my early 40s. I spent a couple, well about a year off, you know, really kind of working on myself and trying to figure out what was next. And during that year that I was off, I volunteered at the St. Croix Valley Food bank at least weekly. And then I got asked to come back and do some office work. I started packing food and distributing food and then was asked to come back to the office and start doing some office work. And that evolved into them offering me an amazing part time job where I get to work with our volunteers a lot. I get to work with our community, community engagement and events. I get to plan events, which is amazing and fun. So yes, my career path has been kind of two different things, but I definitely enjoy being in the nonprofit world. And I still have get to use a lot of my strengths, which is I love working with people, I love to be up, I love to be active. So really taking those skills that I, you know, mastered when I was in retail and bringing them over to nonprofit has been really successful. And I absolutely love what I do. And I do get to, like I said, I work part time, but I still get to be really challenged with learning new things. So working in retail and just having that career path, I didn't spend A lot of time on the computers or with spreadsheets or things like that. And so I've had to really learn how to, you know, a sit at my desk, actually sometimes and do office work and learn some skills there. But also I've been able to take over managing our website. That's something I never would have done before. And managing our social media, which is. Which has been really fun to do and try new things and get a lot of new followers to follow us. So there's definitely been some growth as well in my. I call it my second career.
- [08:54]
B
Yeah. Because that's a huge shift. And so in your early. You said you were 40 when that happened, right?
- [09:01]
A
I was in my early 40s. Early 40s, yeah. And I just was like, I'm going to take some time off. And my husband was very supportive and just kind of got to figure out what's next. And my volunteering time here at the St. Croix Valley Food bank led me to this amazing job.
- [09:16]
B
That's amazing. And I love that kind of organic movement into it where you started volunteering, and it just became this bigger part of your life. Thank you for sharing that. Because it's a hard thing to shift careers, I think, at later ages where you're just like, I've been doing this for so long, I guess I have to stick with it. So that's really inspiring to hear.
- [09:39]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was really lucky to be able to take that time off, and my husband was really supportive of it, and it's really brought me into, not only professionally, but personally, a great space.
- [09:54]
B
Yeah. Would you say that there's any overlap from your previous career with the second career? Like, do you feel like there are skills that, like you said, you've been learning new skills, like office work, but are there skills from your previous career that you've been able to apply here to?
- [10:07]
A
Sure, absolutely. I think when you work in retail, you have to have a lot of customer service and people skills. And certainly with the work that I do here at the St. Croix Valley Food bank, those definitely overlap. I do spend a lot of time out in the community. Like I said, I do run all of our events, but really a big passion of mine is helping oversee the volunteer program here as well at the St. Croix Valley Food Bank. So, you know, really having those management skills, kind of people skills to get new volunteers into the door, get them signed up for their shifts, but then really just making them feel special and they should feel special. Like, we rely on our volunteers heavily to do a lot of the work that we have to do here, we run in a very limited staff. There's only 12 of us who work here. Most of us out of those 12 are part time. And so we bring in thousands of hours of volunteer work a year. And so, you know, we really want to make them feel special and really. And we really do appreciate all the work they do. So I think that's a skill that has very easily translated. And like I said, I'm a people person, so I like to be up and working with everyone.
- [11:23]
B
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And yeah, it's amazing how many people want to contribute their time. And so being able to have that, like, central point of contact, being able to know that this is who I need to talk to, and managing that, that's really important. What's your typical day like at the food bank?
- [11:43]
A
Yeah. Okay, so there's not. There's not really a typical day. Every day's a little bit different, you know, but really, depending on what I have going on, I do have a lot of volunteer, like, events coming in. I bring in a lot of groups, so corporations. Last night I had a local hockey team that was in helping us out. So on a typical day, I would say I have at least, you know, one volunteer event or one meeting with a volunteer or doing tours. So my day is kind of set up around what I have, you know, scheduled with the volunteers or if I have a community event. And then I just kind of schedule some office time around there. I do a lot of, like, pre planning for events that we have in April. We have our big Empty Bowls event where we'll ask the community to come in and purchase tickets, and their meal is then provided from local restaurants that donate it. We have silent auction, and it's a really big event for us. So I've already started planning that, so. And any downtime I have when not working out in the community and with my volunteers, I structure my time around those events and community engagement activities that we have.
- [13:01]
B
That's awesome. And I was actually going to ask about the Empty Bowls event because it seems like a really, really cool concept and just a cool way to get everyone together. You want to talk more about the Empty Bowls event?
- [13:13]
A
Sure, yeah. It's our largest fundraiser of the year. We do it in the April time frame, and we really rely on the community to help support and raise money here for the Saint Croix Valley Food Bank. All of our local restaurants donate all of the food. So there's soup, bread, dessert, water, coffee provided. The tickets are $35. And then every person gets to take home a handcrafted pottery bowl as well as enjoy a fabulous dinner of soup and bread with us. And our local potters here actually donate the pottery. And it is absolutely beautiful. Beautiful. The work they do is just phenomenal. So we work with local pottery groups. We work with the Phipps center of Arts here in Hudson to have classes where they teach people to make bowls. We also have some, you know, potters that have been doing it for years that just make us bowls and donate. And it's. They're absolutely beautiful. And when those doors open at 5pm There are people lined up because they want to be the first people to get in.
- [14:24]
B
Yeah, they want to see all the bowls. They want to be able to.
- [14:28]
A
They want to handpick their bowls first. So that's always a really big draw. And then we have that delicious soup that's been donated, and it's. It's amazing. And then it's just really a. A nice social event where, um, you know, community members are in and, you know, we're all kind of mingling with them. We have a pretty large silent auction that people can bid on and some raffles and things like that. So it just really becomes a social event for our community. And over the past three years, it's really grown into a big event. And it's. It's a lot of fun. You know, it's a lot of work to plan to begin to begin with it, but it's, It's. It's. It's a lot of fun. And I love having and welcoming community members into the St. Croix Valley Food bank. Maybe their first time or their first exposure with us. So what a great event to attend and come in and see what we do.
- [15:27]
B
Yeah, that sounds like an amazing event. So great way to bring a community together. So incredible that everyone is so supportive. So that's really cool.
- [15:38]
A
Yeah. When we're out asking for soup and silent auction and sponsorships, I mean, the community support is absolutely, absolutely amazing. And it's very heartwarming. And we're definitely in a fantastic community here.
- [15:54]
B
That's great. So a lot of your job is community building. I mean, your title is community engagement related. And I think a lot of people find community building challenging. It's a challenging thing to do. How do you even get started? And you do it in a lot of different ways. You mentioned social media that you're building, the website that you're doing, like, actual management of volunteers and the corporations and companies that are coming to Help you guys out. What would be your, like, I guess, some advice that you could give people who are starting to kind of work in this area of community building around whatever nonprofit that they're working with? And what kind of tips do you have to help them get started? Sure.
- [16:39]
A
Well, when I started working here a little over two years ago, not a lot of people knew what the St. Croix Valley Food bank was. And so I was like, okay, brand awareness. We got to work on our brand awareness. We got to get out, and we got to show people. We got to tell people. We got to bring people in. We got to give them tours. We got to, you know, we got to tell people what we do. And even last night, part of the group that was in, the parents were like, wow. One of the parents came up to me, I never knew you were here. I never, you know, I never knew this place existed. And so there are still people in our local community who don't know what we do and what a food bank is. And so we started there and really just, like, what can we do to get our brand awareness out? So, you know, one thing I knew we needed to do was build social media. As we become a very digital world, I knew we needed to grow followers and try new things, whether it's, you know, posting stories or videos. Still not great at the videos, but I'm working on it, but really growing that. And then I just started looking into what can I do to get out and take our logo out and meet people and tell people what we do. And I've heard that in order for someone to donate to you or feel like you're, you know, a charity that's, you know, like an established charity, they have to kind of see you multiple times. They have to see your logo. They have to see you. They have to, like, see your building to really build that trust. And so any little community event I can do, I just started signing up for them. Whether it's local restaurants will have, like, burger night on Monday. And anyone who comes in and orders a burger, 10% of those sales will come back to the food bank. So then they're, you know, they're advertising on their end. I'm advertising on my end a lot of times at those events, I will attend those events and answer questions. You know, take donations. Having food drives, just getting our. We have big bins that we can take out for food drives. So really working with local community members and businesses of hosting food drives for us, once again, they're advertising at their end, we're advertising at ours, people are seeing our logo on these bins. And so I really just started signing up for anything and everything that I could. Fall festivals. If they're asking nonprofits to come and have a booth or a table, you know, that's a great way to get in and, you know, just meet people. And so really, any. Anything we can do to partner? You know, there's some big community events here in Hudson. Hudson Hot air affair, where there's hot air balloons will go up in the middle of winter. It's in February.
- [19:24]
B
That's amazing.
- [19:25]
A
Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. To see them fly. And that's a really big event we do here in Hudson. So partnering with them to be part of the nonprofit that gets the. The money from the ball drop. They do a big ball drop that comes in, and whoever's ball is closest to the target wins. But we sell tickets for that. You know, pairing up with the Lions with their. The Lions Club for the hometown Music Fest that we do here in Hudson. We did that two years ago. So really just helping join other community events. I go and speak at Rotary events, I speak at women's groups, and really just getting our name out there. So brand awareness was huge when I first started a couple of years ago. And obviously still there's a need for it. People still, you know, don't really understand what a food bank is versus a food pantry, but people are definitely starting to recognize us a lot more. And so that's the first thing, and that's the first advice I would get is just throw yourself out there. And, you know, sometimes it can be really hard to, you know, show up at end of event and stand at a table. And what if no one comes and talks to you? Or, you know, so it can be a little challenging, but you just have to, you know, keep a smile on your face and just know that you're doing it for the greater good. And signing up for those events is. Is a great way to do that and get out in the community.
- [20:47]
B
Yeah. It really helps that you're a people person. I can tell.
- [20:51]
A
Yeah.
- [20:51]
B
Just being out there and making sure you're.
- [20:53]
A
You're.
- [20:55]
B
Showing up. Right? Like showing up in the community, showing up and showing that. That authenticity and trust. Building that piece is really important.
- [21:03]
A
I think it's. It's hard because some of it is fundraising. Right. And fundraising is never, never easy. It's. It's not a huge passion of mine to fundraise. And when I first started here, it's like, I don't want to do any fundraising. But slowly, over time, you realize it's not just like you asking people for money. It's really just building connections with people and whether that's a volunteer who emails us, who. A new volunteer that wants to start up with us. I had two yesterday that I gave a tour to and to really show them what we do here, introduce them to the St. Croix Valley Food bank and get them started. But it's really about just building connections and, you know, really working through people, getting to know them. And, you know, for the most part, people want to do good and people want to do better, and sometimes they just don't know how to give money or to donate their time. And so it's really helping them, helping them find the right fit and just really building those relationships. And that's the part that I love.
- [22:09]
B
Yeah, that sounds. That sounds like a really good fit for you, for sure. What would you say is your favorite part of the job? It sounds like there's a lot of different pieces that you're. You're kind of involved in. What's your. What's your favorite?
- [22:24]
A
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, I do have a little. A little piece of the pie here everywhere. But I would definitely say working with the volunteers. I love bringing in new volunteers. And I'll tell you a little story. There was a volunteer who wrote a note. It was actually on our RKD slip. He donated money to us. And he said he donated to several charities and had done the same thing. And when they write it in the donation slip, he had wrote, if you ever need a volunteer, call me. And he had handwritten it on our RKD letter. He had made a donation and it was mailed back to us. And I called him and he said, you are the only nonprofit that actually called me. Um, they did not call. And so I called him and I said, well, well, come on in. Let's set up a time for you to take a tour and, you know, we'll find, we'll find, find a home for you. He just, he wanted to volunteer. He had recently moved here to the Hudson area. He had lost his wife, and he just really wanted to get out in the community and meet people. And now he comes in and works with our government assisted TFAB food once a month. And there's a team that comes in on. Usually it's like the first Monday of the month, and they sort all the food and get it ready for the pantries that accept that kind of food. And every time I see him, I just Smile because it was making that connection and taking the time to really know. It's not a traditional way that we usually would sign up a volunteer, but, you know, to see that he reached out that way and taking the time to call him. And now I see him, you know, at least once a month around here. So.
- [23:57]
B
Yeah, and that's like. That's such a great way to show that any touch point, anything like that matters. When somebody writes in like that on a donation slip and you're the only one who calls back, that's. That's incredible. And I'm sure he. That added the value to what he was contributing to you guys, too. That made him feel good about it, too.
- [24:18]
A
Yeah. And then a couple times a year, we do a community packing event where we invite the entire community to come in at a certain time, once again, to really see what we do, work with us, and whether we're packing apples or potatoes or boxes. But really, those community packing events, opening it up to people who maybe have been a little nervous to try to volunteer, didn't really know what we were doing here at the St. Croix Valley Food Bank. It gives them a time to stop in and make a difference.
- [24:48]
B
Yeah. No, it sounds like you guys are doing all of these steps of building this presence in your community and especially just starting out over the last four years and building this elaborate kind of connection with your community, with the corporations, the volunteers. That's incredible work. What are you most excited about for 2026, now that it's, you know, the new year?
- [25:14]
A
Yeah, we're in the new year. We're back at it. I am really excited for our new facility. I think it's going to be really amazing to have a permanent facility, you know, for the Saint Croix Valley region, for western Wisconsin. Right now we're in a leased space, and, you know, there's a lot of challenges that come with that. And so having that permanent facility that will live years and years and years, and as I like to say, it's our legacy. Yeah. So we're going to leave that behind, and it's. It's going to be amazing, and we're going to continue to grow the amount of food we can take in, the amount of food we can distribute. So 2026 is a big year for us.
- [25:56]
B
Yeah, I know. It's huge. The space is going to be amazing. And I think that, like you said, it's a legacy. I think you're making your mark in Hudson and in the Valley, too. So that's kudos to you all for doing all this work and building this from the ground up. So I guess, like you mentioned earlier, that food people struggle with understanding what the difference between food banks and food pantries. And I know this is kind of a broader question, but do you spend time explaining this to people? How do you explain it? And what. What do you find connects, like, the dots for people on what the difference is?
- [26:35]
A
Yeah. So, yeah, anytime we're out in the community, anytime we're meeting with people, you know, we really just go through and say, hey, what do you know about. What do you know about a food bank? Like, we're the only one in western Wisconsin. So it's not like that's a. It's a common thing. And a lot of times they just. They don't understand the difference between what a local food pantry and a food bank is. And how we really explain that is we're the big distributor of food, right? So we're. We're the big warehouse. We're responsible for, you know, taking the food in and then making sure that that food gets out where it needs to to all of our programs and partners. So I kind of say we're like the Amazon of the western Wisconsin here of food, of food for people in need. So really, what we do is we want to sign up as many partners and pantries and backpack programs as we can to become our partners. There's a lot of benefits to become a partner of a food bank. Free food is one of them. Highly reduced food is another. And so our job is to sign up as many as possible and then let them impact their local communities with the food. And, of course, we have checks and balances and people who go out and make sure our programs and partners are operating the way they should. But we really want to, you know, help them get the food so that they can really identify within their community who needs the food, how they need the food, how they give out the food. So, yes, we're. We're a big food distributor. We run a big warehouse. A lot of food in, a lot of food out. And with that comes sourcing food, buying food. So we have a fabulous operations director who works. And his team works really, really hard to source that food and make sure we. If we can't get it free, we're, you know, getting it at a very reduced rate. If we do have to charge for anything, you know, that's what's really happening behind the scenes. And food rescue is another thing that we're working with. Instead of it going to the landfill, is there A way that we can take that food and use that food for the local food pantries. So working with the local grocery stores to get that set up as they go through. And there's, you know, almost expired bread or bakery items like, let's not put those in the landfill. Let's get those to who need them and let's get them to who needs them fast. Right. If we have a little time within expiration. So we work with those programs to make sure the rescue food and then something near and dear to my heart that I love, that we do. I grew up on a farm in western Wisconsin, so we do support our local farmers with buying fresh local produce all summer long. It's hard to grow fruit right now and vegetables when it's 0 degrees, but all summer we do support our local farmers with spending some of our fundraising money or grant money that we have coming in to turn that back into our local community and support our farmers. So that's really fun. That produce gets picked up once or twice a week and it's just the most beautiful produce you've ever seen. And we turn that around really quickly and get that out to our programs or our partners. But it's always a really fun time.
- [29:50]
B
That's amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story and all of the great work you're doing with Saint Croix Valley Food Bank. I am so excited to have this opportunity to talk to you, Becky. Thank you.
- [30:03]
A
Oh, well, thank you very much, Neepa. This has been a lot of fun.
- [30:07]
B
What an inspiring chat. So here are three takeaways I got from our chat with Becky that I would take back to my nonprofit and just to my life in general. One, Career changes can happen at any age. It just takes a willingness to try new things and be open to the discomfort that may come with it. Two, community building, especially for a brand new organization, can be so challenging, but it's important to put yourselves out there and ultimately people do want to help. Becky's story about the donor writing in that he'd like to volunteer was so inspiring. And three, building a reputation from scratch for an organization is hard work, but it can be done. And St. Croix Valley Food bank has had incredible growth over the last four years. Want to chat with us? Email us@connectkdgroup.com and I hope I hear back from you. Either way, I'll chat with you next month.