Cornucopia Crew
Team members: Montrio Belton, Tyson Blanton, Millicent Dickey, Mark Everett, Laurie Funderburk, Elizabeth Owen, Gary Simrill, Donny Supplee
The Cornucopia Crew selected its name both as a symbol of the underlying diversity of the group and a nod to the outcome of our project: fresh fruits and vegetables for the community.
Team member Donny Supplee is the executive director for the Kershaw County United Way. Last year, the organization identified a need in the community for greater access to fresh produce, especially in the rural portions of the county or “food deserts.” As a first step to addressing this need, United Way purchased and outfitted a refrigerated trailer with the goal of bringing food to communities in need. Unfortunately, the project stalled as questions began to arise like how to fund the program, what the branding should be, if food should cost money or be given away for free, and so on. Donny brought this problem to the group with hope that our diverse backgrounds could answer these questions and more to allow the program to be as successful as possible.
Our group was able to leverage our knowledge, connections, resources, and skills to address these concerns and set the Fresh Stop: Mobile Market on the road to success. Laurie Funderburk helped us clear the first roadblock by leveraging her knowledge of USDA aggregator grants to connect United Way with a local distributor of free produce. This created a steady flow of fruits and vegetables that could be distributed in food deserts, free of cost. Once the supply was established, the Crew was able to contribute to make each stop more impactful. Mark Everett found nutrition-related coloring and activity sheets, plus fruit and vegetable stickers that his organization, NETA, had access to. As a perfect complement, Millicent Dickey procured a donation of crayons from the Clover School District. The group decided early on that the “shopping experience” was a valuable component to the Fresh Stop: Mobile Market. Though all the produce is free, our group saw value in allowing the individual to pick and choose what they wanted instead of the traditional, pre-packaged food giveaways to which we’re all accustomed. This small shift will help give clients a sense of dignity and independence. In support of this component, Tyson Blanton provided a supply of reusable grocery bags donated by Duke Energy.
Of course, it wasn’t all about physical donations. Crew members Mark Everett and Gary Simrill used their business acumen to create a plan that lays out the framework for the program. The hope is that the plan makes it easier for other United Ways to replicate the program. Montrio Belton enlisted his son, Trio Belton, to produce a video promoting the importance and effectiveness of the program to increase visibility. Laurie Funderburk, Elizabeth Owen, and Millicent Dickey were each actively involved in brainstorming sessions to make the program as impactful as possible and led the charge on creating the team’s fabulous presentation. Tyson Blanton was dubbed the Cornucopia Crew wrangler for all meetings and communications in addition to her contribution of redesigning the Fresh Stop logo and creating plans to revamp the current trailer decoration. Gary Simrill also leveraged his connection with Winthrop University to present the trailer wrap as a project to the fall design students. Last and certainly not least, Donny Supplee served as the Crew’s “boots on the ground” and the anchor for the whole project. He provided updates, feedback on ideas, implemented new tactics, and even hauled the Fresh Stop: Mobile Market to our final class day for “show and tell.”
In all, the Cornucopia Crew was able to leverage our crew members’ various talents, experience, knowledge, and resources to amplify an incredible program to have a greater impact locally, create an easier path forward for other organizations to replicate and, hopefully, remove barriers to nutritional food in our state’s rural areas.