Show: Insight Station: KNCO File: 11:2.mp3 Air date: 2026-11-02 Source: OpenAI whisper-1 · shrunk from 98.6 MB to 12.3 MB --- transcript --- Building recognition and becoming a familiar name people remember and trust. Because when someone finally needs your product or service, you want your business to be the one that comes to mind. If you own or manage a local business, I'd love to hear your story and learn what you'd like to accomplish. No obligation, no pressure, let's just sit down and talk about your business and see if radio makes sense for you. Call me at 530-272-3424. Let's make your business a name Nevada County remembers. Hi, this is Mike Bratton. For 31 years, Tom Fitzsimmons has been a familiar voice on KNCO Radio. But to so many of us, Tom is much more than a voice. He's a friend, a neighbor, and someone who's always been there for our community. Now Tom needs us. For five years, Tom has been fighting stage 4 prostate cancer. He's now facing serious medical procedures that will keep him off the air for several months. A GoFundMe has been established to help with his medical costs and everyday living expenses, so Tom can focus on his health and recover. Every dollar donated goes directly to Tom and every gift makes a difference. Tom has spent 31 years being there for Nevada County. Now it's our turn to be there for him. Please visit knco.com to learn more about what he's going through and how you can help. Updates on Tom will also be posted at knco.com. Thank you from the bottom of all of our hearts. Welcome to KNCO Insight, Nevada County Action, KNCO's local issue talk show. This is your chance to gain insight into issues affecting Nevada County. Be a part of the show. Call with your questions or comments. The number, 477-5626, that's 477-KNCO. The opinions expressed are those of the hosts and callers and do not reflect the opinions of the advertisers, staff, or ownership of Nevada County Broadcasters. Now here is your host, Tom Fitzsimmons. And as you know, Tom is on leave and we anticipate his return. In fact, this is the first day he hasn't been here and I already miss him, so I want him to come back today. Agreed. But he cannot, so he's taking care of himself. We have our guest in the studio this morning and that is Brett Bentley, Executive Director of Food Bank of Nevada County. Good morning, Brett. Good morning. Thank you for coming in today. I know Tom set up this interview with you and I think you come in once a month, is that about right? Correct, yeah. We get the opportunity to talk about the food bank every single month here. Yeah, and I want to thank you for stopping by the other day to connect with Tom. Yeah, it was great to see him before he went out. I was sad to learn that it was going to happen right before my time on air with him, but it's nice to be here with you. Yes, thank you. And of course, when you stopped by, you sat down and how long have you known Tom? You've known him a long time, haven't you? I've known Tom a long time. I've been in Nevada County for 28 years and I worked for the Union Newspaper, so we had an opportunity to connect then and I had the chance to get to know his wife as well, working with her at the hospital. All right. And so, yeah, we go back at least 20 years. Wow, long time. Yeah. And you're not even 20 years old. Exactly. I don't know how that happened. That's weird. A temporal... Don't understand that, Matt. Displace, yeah. And by the way, you can check out Tom's message on our website, knco.com. You can hear the message. You can also, if you'd like to make a donation to his GoFundMe account, knco.com. Well, Brett, before we get into talking about the Food Bank of Nevada County, we had the pleasure of working with your daughter... This is true. ...for about a month, maybe three weeks, something like that. Yeah, about three weeks before she left for college, yeah. Yeah. And so how's she doing? Yeah, she's doing great. She's been texting me. We're going to try to connect later today, but she is just loving life. She's finding her people and her place at UC San Diego and surviving midterms and just really enjoying the different scene, getting to know different people. When you're born and raised in a town and you don't move around, it's great. We have a wonderful community. Very happy that we raised our children here, but she's really seeing and experiencing so much more, and it's been fun to watch through her eyes. You know what? She's got that really innocent face, but she's got a really wacky sense of humor. She does. Do you notice that? She does. She does. Yeah. She's a goof. Yeah. We're very fortunate that we got to work with her and Elena, who's at the front desk now. She's great, too. Yes. Yes. It's nice to come in and see her. Both Nevada Union graduates. Absolutely. I know that Kendall really appreciated her time here and misses everybody. I think she's planning on coming and saying hi when she's back in town. Oh, that would be great. And you said she's coming back for the – is she coming back for the – She'll be back for Thanksgiving, not that I'm counting down the days. Well, yeah. That's, what, three weeks? About three weeks, yeah. About three weeks away. All right. So yesterday you had a big event. We did, actually. It's one of our former board members who's been doing this for 20 years, a community member, Pam Morey, started the Bridge of Giving 20 years ago, just as a way for her to give back, to have people come out. And she likes to spam the South Yuba River Bridge with food, and she had that yesterday. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, I told Pam. She conjured up the perfect day. The day before was a bit cloudy and rainy, and today's lovely, but yesterday was truly like the winds were down. It was just sunny and gorgeous out there. Everybody was in a good mood, and she said it best. She said, coming out here gives people an ability to help the food bank, but they're also giving back to themselves, because it's just such a beautiful area, and you get a go when you can actually drive into the parking lot and find a parking spot, unlike summertime. It was just a really great day to go down and take a hike and drop off some food or a donation for the food bank, and it was just really a great event. And how'd it go? I was waiting to get the totals before I came here, and I didn't quite get the weight totals yet. They were still unloading the van from yesterday, but I know that she raised more than $3,000, so that was a very successful afternoon. So you were accepting food donations? Correct. Food and money. Plus cash? Yes. And I know there was a message prior to the event that if the weather didn't cooperate or you couldn't make it, you could donate on the website. Absolutely. How'd that go? It went well. We got one donation on the website. Most of it was actually in person because it was such a beautiful day. And people can still donate on behalf of that or just directly to the food bank. We're in the midst of our Beyond the Plate campaign at the moment, which has turned into kind of our year-end campaign, but it's also us celebrating our 40th anniversary. We've turned it, instead of having an event this year, we really wanted to put our focus and our time where it mattered most, which was in our money, raising money to feed people. We've gone through so many changes in the last few years, and with government funding always ebbing and flowing and in flux, we decided it was really important that we take the time to do a fundraising campaign, not as an event, but just as a campaign so that 98% of the proceeds can go right back into feeding people. Truly, it's the most impactful way for us to do that and to tell our story after 40 years in Nevada County. So yeah, looking back to 1986. And that must have been an unusual maneuver to start something like that. Yes. I'm fairly new to the food banking world, but my understanding is it was right around that time a lot of food banks started to form. Some in larger communities had already formed about five or ten years before that, but a group of dedicated people in this community saw the need for it and went and worked with the county government. There was a community action fund. They received a grant through that for $28,000, and they got it started. They hired a part-time manager, they found a location, and they immediately started handing out food all throughout the community, up into Truckee, into North San Juan, Grass Valley. They were serving 1,000 people a month from the get-go. And that's grown quite a bit. Significantly, yes. And so what does the distribution look like today? Well, we distribute, on average, we touch about 25,000 people a month in this community. And when are the distributions and where? That's a great question. So we have seven distributions, seven to eight distributions we do directly, where we show up with our trucks and our staff and our volunteers and hand out food through the USDA and Emergency Food Assistance Programming. And we do those in, we're going to be in Penn Valley on Thursday, the first Thursday of every month, we're down in Penn Valley at the Seventh-day Adventist Church there on Penn Valley Drive. And that's from 10 to noon. Then we go to the second Tuesday of the month, we're up in North San Juan at 10 to noon up at Oak Tree Family Resource Center. And then we have Grass Valley, that's our largest distribution, the second and fourth Thursday of every month. We're down in South County, we call it the Higgins Distribution, and that's the third Thursday of the month. So we're pretty busy. We go up to the little town of Washington on the third Wednesday of every month, and if there's a fifth Wednesday, we will do that one as well. So we get out and about, and we drive food up to Truckee about once or twice a month as well. Elena, did you have something you wanted to? People can't hear it on the radio. Oh, okay. All right. Can't hear both of us, or just? I just got a call. My thing went out, and then I got a call a few minutes after that saying most of it happened. Okay. All right. All right. We'll turn it up. Turn it up a little bit. All right. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. So, Elena, you know, doing a great job. Apparently, once in a while, we have some issues with our signal, as you know. You can always pick it up on iHeart. But something like the organization and all the distributions you do, because you also have a small distribution, but you're doing a great job. So I think, you know, we're doing a great job. I think we're doing a great job. So we're doing a great job. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Elena. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So, Elena, you know, doing a great job. Apparently, once in a while, we have some issues with our signal, but you can always pick it up on iHeart. But something like the organization and all the distributions you do, because you also have a small distribution, but you're doing a great job. So I think, you know, we're doing a great job. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So we take food out. Those are our distributions where we go out in the community and try to—we'd like to say we go out and meet the need where it's at. We go to people so they don't have to come to us. And then also, we have agencies and schools that come to us and get food every single week and take it back. And that really helps us fill the gaps and meet the need in the community, because we're only up in North San Juan once a month, because we're only down in South County once a month. We really need to be out and about in the community, and those agencies help us fill that need. And such a massive operation. You must have a lot of people that are part of it, maybe people that work for you, maybe people that volunteer. What's your complement look like? Oh, absolutely. We have—we're small but mighty, is what we like to say. We have a staff of seven that help make it all possible. It's a very small crew of hired working people. I have a great team right now, really enjoying working with all of them, and they do a great job. And then on top of that, we rely heavily on volunteers to make it happen, because again, that really allows us to put all of our money where it's needed most, which is feeding people, either getting the trucks loaded and getting the food to them, or purchasing the food directly. So we have a team of about 230 volunteers, an active roster around 100 that come out and help us. One of our Grass Valley distributions alone requires about 30 volunteers, because we do a lot of packing onsite and then loading of the cars. And we see about an average of 700 households that come through our Grass Valley distribution. And I know one of those volunteers, she used to work here. Is she still doing that? Is Lori still out? Oh, Lori's great. No, unfortunately, she's had some other things come up between work and life, so she's unable to be there helping out, but she did. She had a route on our home delivery, and she helped for years. She was just really wonderful. She got to know her people very well, and they loved her. She would sit and talk with them. And they just needed a little extra attention sometimes, because they live alone. Our home delivery program serves about 85 households twice a month, where these are people that are homebound. They can't get out to get our food. They don't have a lot of resources or family that can help them get the food themselves. So we drive it to them directly. And you can learn more about the food bank at your website, foodbankofnc.org. Is that correct? That is correct, yes. Okay, I got that memorized. Well, let's head into our break and see if we can figure out our volume issues. And we'll return with more with Brett Bentley here in just a minute or so. It is 19 minutes after 9, 53 degrees. Global superstar, Ricky Martin. Live in concert. See Ricky Martin performing all the hits for one night only. Live at the venue at Thunder Valley, Friday, November 6th. Get tickets now at ThunderValleyResort.com. If your project requires specialized equipment, there's only one call to make, and that's the HPE Rentals. HPE Rentals is the region's equipment rental leader, with aerial lifts, backhoes, brush chippers, compaction equipment, concrete tools, dozers, excavators, forklifts, floor care equipment, generators, paint sprayers, pump scaffolding, trailer wood splitters, and a whole host of other equipment and supplies. Call today at 530-273-3100 or visit GoHPE.com to learn more. For Equipment Rentals, always rely on HPE Rentals. Hey, Nevada County, I'm Lucas Mijares. And I'm Jesse Etlin. We're the founders of Zion Capital right here in your backyard. And if you've listened to Dave Ramsey, you know how important it is to have someone you can trust. That's why we're your local SmartVestor pros. Lucas was named one of eight finalists for Advisor of the Year by Investment News and has been featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. And Jesse's been voted Best Financial Advisor in Nevada County four years in a row. We're backed by firms like Fidelity and Charles Schwab, so you don't have to drive down the hill. You can have Schwab and Fidelity right here in your backyard. That means you get a true hometown relationship with Fortune 500 muscle behind your plan. We work with everyone from entrepreneurs building wealth to retirees focused on maximizing income. And we go beyond the basics, showing you smarter ways to grow your money that most people never knew existed. At the end of the day, we meet you where you're at and help you get where you want to go. Come visit us here in Grass Valley or give us a call today at 530-955-5402. Zion Capital, a mission bigger than money. Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA SIPC, a registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial. Honey, remember when we first started dating? You used to do the sweetest things to impress me. Used to? Excuse me? I'm still quite the romantic. Oh, really? What have you done for me lately? Well, I've been looking into getting us a Generac automatic standby generator from Precision Electric. Ooh, talk electrical to me. How about battery storage? Solar systems and expert electrical work from licensed electricians. Keep going. They even service generators, so we're ready when the power goes out. You know, there's something very attractive about a man who plans ahead. Well, what can I say? After all these years, I've still got that spark. Yes, you do, honey. Yes, you do. For Generac generators, solar, battery, storage and professional electrical services, trust Precision Electric. Visit PEGV.net. They've been voted Nevada County's best for years. So, dinner by candlelight tonight? Only if it's romantic, and not because the power went out. I'm KNCO. Morning news time, 923 and 54 degrees. This is Mo filling in for Tom Fitzsimmons on this first day of November, first weekday of November, the 2nd, 2026. And our special guest this morning is Brett Bentley, Executive Director for the Food Bank of Nevada County. Welcome back. Thank you. Yeah, and I appreciate you coming in, even though Tom's not here. But yeah, he is like the quintessential conversationalist. Oh, he very much is. Natural. Yeah. And natural. And we miss him, but we appreciate you stepping in and being here. It's great to talk to you, too. And once again, you can head to our website if you'd like to make a GoFundMe donation or to listen to Tom's message that he recorded. I think it was last Tuesday that that was on the air. But back to the Food Bank of Nevada County. And there was something that recently occurred with PG&E. Yes. That had to do with the food bank just making things a little bit easier. Can you explain what was going on there? Sure. The PG&E Foundation every year is a very generous supporter of food banks across our state. And we are one of the lucky recipients. So we received a $16,000 grant from them that we're able to use to help this community out in case of an emergency. So we're prepared and ready when an emergency happens in this town that we have the funding available to have food and water on hand. We always have some fresh water and food on hand so that in the event of an emergency, we can respond immediately. And then also have the reserves ready so that we can get more food and water here when needed. And so that money's spent. And so you just go out shopping with that money, or how does it work? Pretty much, yeah. We have really great relationships with vendors. We've built up over the years. And especially in the last year, we have built some really strong relationships with vendors, local farms, and some great distributors. So that when an emergency, in the event of an emergency, a snowstorm that shuts the county down, a fire, we are able to be there to help. Because when power gets cut off, you'll lose your food. The first few days is fine. But then after that, people start, if you can't get out, if people are relocated, we are able to be there to help. We're able to provide snacks and fresh water when they set up emergency shelters and working with the county. And then we are part of the response that happens in town when more is needed. So during Snowmageddon, for example, when Alta Sierra got shut down, the first Snowmageddon, we were able to drive our truck in and provide food to those people that went up to 16 days without any power. 16 days, wow, that's a long time. And who was behind this effort? How did this happen with PG&E? We have an ongoing relationship because we are the food bank for our community. We are the USDA-designated food bank. We work with Cal Food Banks, which is the statewide food bank association. And they just have a really strong relationship with PG&E and PG&E Foundation because we are the accredited food bank for the USDA. And we recognize that that is the one that they want to send the funding through to make sure that we're there in the event of an emergency and that we're supporting our community. And that's a way that they can help offset that. All right. So, yes, some great news for this area with that going down. And hopefully we have no more Snowmageddons. But that first one, was that, what, 22 maybe? I believe so, yeah. 22, 21, something like that? 22 and then 23, we had the one that hit Grass Valley hard. And, yes, I welcome the rain. But snow, maybe higher up. Yeah, well, I'm going to talk with our meteorologist, Dan Holliday, and see if he can work something out where we don't get the snow. Sounds good. Or the excessive snow, like what happened that year. Because, yeah, that's not a lot of fun. No. But either way, you're prepared. We are prepared and we're ready. And, yeah, hopefully we don't need it and we can just hold on to it and we are able to recycle the water to other local organizations who need it. And it's a great thing for us to do. But it's nice to know that we're there and we're ready and that they work with us as a partner to make sure that this county has what it needs. And as far as donations, the Food Bank of Nevada County is always in need of donations. What would you, I know cash probably is the best, right? Yes. One of the things we like to tell people is because of those relationships that we've built with the distributors, because of the relationships we've built with other agencies, we have a really strong buying power. So we can turn every dollar into three or four when it comes to purchasing. The same can that you can donate to us that you buy at the store at full price, we can get for about a third of that price. And buying at more of wholesale prices, we are able to really extend what we do. And lately we have had to purchase more and more food. Our food budget has gone up in the last year because of federal cuts to programs, grants that have expired and not been renewed. We've had to purchase more food and we're committed to doing that for the community. We've set aside a really nice chunk of money to be able to continue to support local farmers because it's important to us that we pay not just local, but that we're providing really high quality food to these people, that we're providing nutritionally dense food so that people don't have to worry about their health. Of all the things that they have on their plate to worry about, we want to make sure that groceries are not one of them and that they're getting healthy options that are good and wholesome. Have you seen that? Has it been on a curve for the last few years that the need has risen? Or was this last year the worst you've ever seen? We've been a little bit on a curve coming out of COVID. Our numbers have been high ever since COVID. There was a nice little dip in about 2023 because of some excess funding coming out of COVID that people were able to enjoy their CalFresh dollars and shop for themselves. But no, it's gone up and it's kind of been up. And we anticipate seeing with the weather coming in with El Nino, with inflation being so high, we are seeing increases. Our Penn Valley distribution has definitely grown significantly. We're seeing higher numbers in North San Juan. We're seeing higher numbers everywhere else. And we're holding steady in Grass Valley. And what happens? Have you ever been in a position where you haven't been able to do the distributions as many or as much as you'd like? We have not had that happen. We're very fortunate. We are able to meet the need and we project out what the need should be and have excess. So right now we anticipate we're going to be able to meet that need. Last year when CalFresh got cut off in November, we were very nervous about that because we are a safety net. And CalFresh makes up for every one meal we can provide, they provide nine. And it's a big statistic. So that is truly the best way to combat food insecurity in this state, in our community. In lieu of that, we're there as a safety net. And we can help people stretch their budget. Oftentimes we hear from people who don't need to be on CalFresh, but because of inflation, because of gas prices, if they have to turn their heater on now that it's turned a little bit cooler, the prices go up. It stretches their budget. And one increase at the gas pump could make a difference to cutting into your grocery budget. We had a couple who make just a little bit too much to qualify for CalFresh, but their medical bills exceeded and their monthly medical bills exceeded anything that they could do for their grocery budget. So they needed some extra help. And there are a lot of factors in why people would come to us. People can come to us one time. They come to us regularly. It just depends on their circumstance. But we are definitely seeing an increase with gas prices going up. We're seeing more people come to our outlying areas as opposed to like Grass Valley in town. They have more options. But if you live far out, you can't get down here to get food. And the food options are more limited. We call those food deserts like North San Juan, even Camdenville. We've been working closely with the Camdenville community to see if we can get more food up there. So when we were talking about donations, I mentioned cash. What kind of food items are good to donate? Well, we take pretty much everything. But for donation, especially in our bins around town or if we're doing a food drive, the bigger ones are shelf-stable foods, proteins especially. Proteins go a lot further. But any type of shelf-stable food that they can get and put in, pastas go a long ways, rice, oats. We provide a lot of dry bags to help offset the load. And bags too, right? Bags, yes. How are your bag donations going? They up and flow. But right now, we could probably use some more. We usually do a really good job of hyping it up, and we haven't the last few months. In fact, I just noticed that we need to get a bin out here in the lobby again to collect more bags. For every distribution, we pack everything in bags. So we do about three grocery bags worth of food per household. And in one of our Grass Valley distributions alone is on average 700 households in one day. So that's a lot of bags if you do the math. And we do that twice a month in addition to all of our other ones. So we go through bags quite a bit. We always ask people to return and reuse them. But any time you're at the store, if you go into your garage and you realize you have a whole stockpile of bags, please think of us. We could use them, especially at this time of year. Yeah, okay. So, yeah, you need to get that box back out there. I wonder what happened with that box. I think it was the Toys for Tots for a while. Well, the Toys for Tots is still out there and Project Warmth, both of which are excellent causes. But we might get our bin back out here just to have bags because we're going into the busy season. Now, are you also looking for donations of egg cartons? You know, we don't need egg cartons as much. That's Interfaith Food Ministry. They look for egg cartons. We take them and we use them. But they buy eggs in bulk over there. We are fortunate to get our eggs in cartons already. So we don't need those so much. But I know that IFM does, and they also need bags. So consider both of us. Both of us are great organizations that are fighting food security in this town. And we are the local ones, and that's where we want people to focus. Yeah, and you work well together. We do. You were set up together at the event that Tom hosted. Community Agency Day, that's correct. And we actually, starting yesterday, we have a food drive going together at South Yuba Club. So when people go work out, they're asking their members to come in and bring food. And it's a joint food drive with both Interfaith and us. So when you give, you give to both causes. And it's a really good thing. Yeah, we were talking with Brett Bentley, who is the Executive Director of the Food Bank of Nevada County. And we'll take a break, but in just a minute, I'd like to get into what is happening as we get closer to Thanksgiving. Oh, absolutely. Turkey, turkey. So we'll be right back with more of Insight here on KNCO News Talk 830, 935 and 55 degrees. Music. We asked seniors how to prevent Medicare scams. My best advice, if you get a phone call, do not talk to the person. These people are well trained. Don't talk to them. They don't know me. They're just trying to scam me. Don't be fooled. Hang up. Just hang up. Never give out your Medicare number. They're going to get your number to put in a false claim. If I get a call from someone, I don't pick up the phone. And should I pick up the phone and ask for information, then I hang up. How do you detect Medicare fraud? Just like I check my credit card statements, I check my Medicare statements monthly. Scammers can get a hold of your number, order medical devices through your account, and you're not even going to know about it if you don't look at your statement. Check your statement every month. If you get your statement and you see something that you know you did not have done, get reported. Call your senior Medicare patrol. To report Medicare fraud, call the senior Medicare patrol at 855-613-7080. Discover the stories that shaped Nevada County on History Unfolded, hosted by Tom Fitzsimmons and myself, Mike Stewart, the special guests, the second and fourth Mondays at 9 a.m., brought to you by Mowl Paint and Glass, serving Nevada County since 1949, and Smarter Broadband, local, reliable, high-speed internet. Don't miss the voices, the stories, and the history that make our community unique, right here on KNCO News Talk 830. It is a Christmas open house at Prospectors Nursery this Thursday through Saturday, November 5th through 7th. They're all decked out for the holidays and ready for a special open house on Saturday from 10 to 2. Enjoy delicious treats, Grandma Martha's famous peach apple tea, and festive music by three times through, and much more holiday fun. And explore the seasonal decor with exciting new gifts throughout the store. For more information, call 470-0973 this Thursday through Saturday at Prospectors Nursery, 1003 Grand Home Lane, Nevada City. Ready to check glass blowing off your bucket list? At Bear River Glassworks in Grass Valley, their three-hour intro classes let you create something truly unforgettable. Make a hollow-blown jellyfish, using gold and silver fuming to create beautiful shimmering colors, or create your own hollow-blown glass pumpkin, just in time for fall. Get hands-on, play with fire, and take home something amazing you made yourself. Book your class today at BearRiverGlassworks.com. That's BearRiverGlassworks.com. Hi, this is Mike Bratton. For 31 years, Tom Fitzsimmons has been a familiar voice on KNCO Radio. But to so many of us, Tom is much more than a voice. He's a friend, a neighbor, and someone who's always been there for our community. Now, Tom needs us. For five years, Tom has been fighting stage 4 prostate cancer. He's now facing serious medical procedures that will keep him off the air for several months. A GoFundMe has been established to help with his medical costs and everyday living expenses, so Tom can focus on his health and recover. Every dollar donated goes directly to Tom, and every gift makes a difference. Tom has spent 31 years being there for Nevada County. Now it's our turn to be there for him. Please visit KNCO.com to learn more about what he's going through and how you can help. Updates on Tom will also be posted at KNCO.com. Thank you from the bottom of all of our hearts. The Prop 40 wealth tax may sound like a good idea at first, but the fine print tells a different story. Prop 40 won't fix health care. It sends tens of billions of dollars to health insurance companies with no oversight or accountability, and no requirement they lower your health care costs. And Prop 40 doesn't just tax billionaires. When the money runs out, it has a huge loophole that gives politicians the power to expand the tax to anyone without voter approval. That means your personal savings, home equity, even your retirement could all be taxed. It's no wonder Governor Newsom, Javier Becerra, teachers, Planned Parenthood affiliates of California, and over 40 newspapers from across the state all agree. Vote no on the Prop 40 wealth tax. Ad paid for by no on Prop 40. Doctors, teachers, small businesses, working families, and public safety against the reckless wealth tax experiment. Ad committee's top funder, building a better California. This from the KNCO-BNC ACE Home and Garden Center Weather Center. ACE is the place. Here is your forecast on KNCO News Talk 830. High-level clouds coming in today with a high in the upper 50s near 60. We'll have cloud cover off and on this evening and clearing overnight. Then rain arrives early on Tuesday. Cooler with a high 54. Showers continue Tuesday night with some patchy fog. Our low in the upper 30s, low 60s Wednesday. For weather anytime, click on the weather center at knco.com. I'm meteorologist Dan Holiday on KNCO News Talk 830. And KNCO Morning News time. It is 941 and 55 degrees. And Dan Holiday, that sounds like a really good forecast. We've got warmer temperatures. Could get into the 70s later this week. And this is Moe filling in for Tom Fitzsimmons. And if you would like to make a donation for Tom's cancer treatment, you can go to knco.com. You can listen to his message and make a donation to his GoFundMe campaign. And we're talking with Brett Bentley, Executive Director of the Food Bank of Nevada County. Thanks again for coming in today, Brett. Thank you. Really appreciate it. Hey, what was your, how was your Halloween? Very quiet. We had a soccer game, shockingly. It went late and we just came home and had a nice quiet watching movie, Halloween movies. Okay. So what's your go-to Halloween movie? Well, we like to mix it up every year. This year we introduced our 16-year-old to Sixth Sense. That was a fun one to rewatch. I haven't seen it in years. Okay. Did he catch on before the end? Oh, yeah. She's a smart cookie. And, yeah, when you look back at it, we're like, why were we fooled? But it's easy to see after the fact. Yeah. He's not really talking directly. Anyway, we'll get into the plot. Just in case you haven't seen it yet. But, yeah, that's a good choice. I like to do the old Frankenstein monster movies from the 40s. Oh, those are fun, too. One of my favorites. So we, and since Halloween's over, it's time to start thinking about Thanksgiving and the holidays ahead. Have we a date? We do. So every single year we partner with CanSio. I don't know how long this has been going on, but I know it's been going on for at least five years, if not longer, to do a turkey drive out in front of Save Mart. Save Mart's a really wonderful partner. They allow us to come with our truck. It'll be a little different this year without Tom in his turkey suit, I will say. But there will be turkey hats for sure. There will be turkey. We're going to be out there in front of Save Mart on Monday, November 16th, going on air, talking about the need, asking people to donate, come take advantage of the sales that they'll have going on, pick up some turkeys and donate them. It goes a very long ways. Every year we hand out thousands of turkeys directly to people and also working with our community partners. We were able to provide 10 turkeys to Hospitality House last year so that they could make their big Thanksgiving dinner. We are working with other local agencies, Salvation Army, to make sure families have what they need. So it's a big deal. We purchase turkeys locally, but then we also ask if you could donate any and it really helps stretch that need. And that would be two weeks from today. Two weeks from today we'll be out there in front of Save Mart from about 10 to 2, I believe. I think there's been an acceleration of the timeline somehow. Wow, that's two weeks from today. Yeah. Yeah, that's fast. Yeah, and there's a lot of prep that you guys have to do to get ready for that. Yes. As far as the amount of donations, you usually do pretty good at those events. Do you have a percentage of what part of the amount of food that you need to raise that satisfies? That's a great question. I don't know about a percentage. By that point we will already have done at least two of our Thanksgiving handouts, but we do collect them and then we use them. We also use them in December for the toy run and Toys for Tots. So we give food to both of those causes. At Toys for Tots, Food Bank of Nevada County does a distribution to over 200 households. During that day when the families come in to get their presents, they drive through the parking lot and we load them up with a whole holiday meal, including some little treats for their stockings for the kids. And then at the same time we split, we divide and conquer. We work with the toy run in conjunction with Interfaith Food Ministry and we hand out holiday meals to all those families that come through. And they have quite a few families already signed up for the toy run this year. It's going to be just as big as ever. And the need is just as big as ever. So I think it's really great that we get to do that, but that helps us stretch our need. Because not every family wants a ham for Christmas or something else. They often prefer the turkey. So the turkey drive really helps us stretch, like I said. It will help us meet the need for our Grass Valley distribution, which will happen before Thanksgiving. And then we also have the South County distribution that same day. We do a double distribution in that day. And then to be able to provide those turkeys to our community agencies is really key because it helps them do their meals for people who maybe don't have somewhere else to go. They can go to one of those agencies or go to a community dinner. And it also really helps meet the need for Christmas. And we could probably start making donations toward that effort right now. Absolutely. If you go to our website, you can start. We can even create a whole turkey drive page on our website if you wanted. And we may do that. But right now there's just information on our Beyond the Plate campaign, which if you give through that, that's our big year-end campaign that we're focused right now on trying to, like I mentioned, celebrate our 40th anniversary but really highlight the need to support to make sure that we go into the next 40 years as strong as ever. Can you reiterate Beyond the Plate, how that works? Absolutely. It's a community storytelling and fundraising campaign. So we're really hoping to elevate the food bank in Nevada County. There are stories so people understand who we are, what we do, and also what that looks like in our community. We have some really beautiful videos that have been done, people who have come forward. We have a very nice gentleman that's on our home delivery list that allowed us to take video of him and tell his story. He turns his electricity off at night. He's a vet. He served in the Navy. And now he is living in an apartment and off of his pension and in Social Security, and it's tight. He's living off his Navy retirement and Social Security, and money is tight. And so with electricity being as high as it is, he'll turn his fridge and all of his lights off at night to save on his electricity bill. And when you hear stories like that and you know that it's getting colder outside, that breaks my heart. I think about that at night when I'm sitting in my house and I'm fortunate to have my gas stove on or a little bit of heat and I can sit under a blanket and be okay. I'm not okay knowing that there's people out there that might be cold or that maybe don't have anything to eat. We had an organization call us last week and say, I have somebody who we're working with and she doesn't have any food. She has one bag of oatmeal in her house and she's struggling and we didn't know that. And I said, well, then have them come over. This is what we're here for. Everybody has a story in this campaign is really helping to elevate our history, who we are, how we got here, but then also what it looks like and what these are. We had another young woman who is working. She works, her husband works, they have a family and they utilize our services because they work. But times are tight. And even with two working families or two working individuals in a family, it's hard to stretch your budget with gas prices going up, with the grocery prices the way they are. Inflation has really hit home. And so it's really a good chance to get to understand who the Food Bank is, what we do and why we do it. And how are these stories being saved? They're being put out via social media right now on both our Instagram and our Facebook pages. And then in addition to that, if you go to our website, foodbankofnc.org, there's a little pop-up that comes up and all of those stories are being saved on a page there. So if you click on that, you can go in and watch the videos. We're sending them out to our email list every single week. So we really want people to see them. We're putting articles out. We're talking to the media. We're having these opportunities because we just really want to shed a light on what hunger looks like in our community, food security is, and how we work with this community, with other agencies to try to combat that. That's some heartbreaking stuff there. It's a lot. It can be a lot. It must be difficult for you to be collecting those stories. Are they in the voice of the people? Yeah, there's some direct videos and then there's some people that just record it. We have some really nice pieces that you can listen to audio from some of our volunteers. We have one from North San Juan talking about what it means up in that community for us to be up there providing food. Yeah, you can hear it. It's audio, it's visual, and it's all on our website. Our development manager, Daphne Morgan, has done a really great job on collecting these and putting it all together for us. But it's bittersweet because you go to one of our distributions and it's so uplifting. The energy there is so good. People are grateful for us being there. The volunteers are happy to be there. Other clientele are happy that they're getting food put in their cart, and it's good quality food. We're committed to providing no less than 40% of fresh produce. We're committed to proteins as well as canned goods. So we try really hard to provide nutritionally dense meals that get them through and give them one less thing to worry about. All right. So let's take a break here, and we'll come back and finish up our conversation with Brett Bentley, Executive Director of the Food Bank of Nevada County. 951 and 55 degrees. Uh-oh. I'm late for a birthday party and I need a gift. But Food Home Mercantile will help me out. Located in the heart of Mill Street Plaza, downtown Grass Valley, Food Home Mercantile has been family owned and operated for 50 years and have something for everyone. They have the most amazing toy selection in Nevada County and have been voted best toy store for 17 years in a row. The stuffed animal selection is dazzling. Ooh, should I get the copy bar or the narwhal? And they have games, puzzles, art and science toys, building kits, toy vehicles, dolls, squishies, and more classic toys. They also have greeting cards, candy, gifts, housewares, Department 56 village houses, seasonal merchandise, and more. If I can't make up my mind, I can purchase a gift certificate for any amount I wish. After I have picked something, I went with the narwhal, they will beautifully gift wrap it for free, and I'm off to the party. Thanks, Food Home Mercantile. Hi, this is Mike Bratton. For 31 years, Tom Fitzsimmons has been a familiar voice on KNCO Radio. But to so many of us, Tom is much more than a voice. He's a friend, a neighbor, and someone who's always been there for our community. Now, Tom needs us. For five years, Tom has been fighting stage 4 prostate cancer. He's now facing serious medical procedures that will keep him off the air for several months. A GoFundMe has been established to help with his medical costs and everyday living expenses, so Tom can focus on his health and recover. Every dollar donated goes directly to Tom, and every gift makes a difference. Tom has spent 31 years being there for Nevada County. Now it's our turn to be there for him. Please visit knco.com to learn more about what he's going through and how you can help. Updates on Tom will also be posted at knco.com. Thank you, from the bottom of all of our hearts. Johnny Houlihan grew up in Nevada City, graduated from Nevada Union, and spent his teenage years listening to KNCO, dreaming about music. That dream eventually took him to Nashville, where he built a career as a singer, songwriter, and producer. Now Johnny's music is bringing him home. His latest album, 119 Grove Street, is inspired by the Nevada County he grew up in, with songs like Nevada County Line and Hometown Radio. His latest album, 119 Grove Street, is inspired by the Nevada County he grew up in, with songs like Nevada County Line and Hometown Radio. Hear Johnny Houlihan live, Wednesday, November 11th at 7pm at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City. It's a special hometown concert you won't want to miss. Seating is limited. Get your tickets now at knco.com. Johnny Houlihan, coming home to Nevada County. You can let us know about birthdays, anniversaries, or even special accomplishments, so we can announce them at 7.55am and 11.26am here on KNCO. You can text at 530-913-4685. You can visit our website, knco.com, or you can send your message to info at knco.com. Make us a part of your birthday, anniversary, or special accomplishment for free. Our personalities are ready to celebrate with you each weekday morning on KNCO News Talk 830. Everest has been summited over 13,000 times, but only five people have ever climbed the direct north face, and no one in the world has ever skied it. Prime Cinema presents Movies on the Big Screen, as they were meant to be seen at Del Oro and Sutton Cinemas. Showing through November 5th at your Prime Cinemas at the Del Oro, Everest, the other side, rated PG-13, You Can See Everything, rated R, and Clayface, also rated R. Now, let's check on the Sutton. Wildwood, rated PG-13, Sense and Sensibility, rated PG, and Hocus Pocus, also rated PG. Playing through November 5th at your local theaters. Now you know what's showing. Be sure to enjoy a movie on the big screen at Nevada County's two Prime Cinema theaters, the Sutton and the Del Oro. We're back with insight on KNCO News Talk 830, 56 degrees at 956. Mo filling in for Tom Fitzsimmons, who will return after he has concluded his cancer treatment, and you can make a donation to his GoFundMe at knco.com. You'll find his message there as well, describing what's going on. I have the pleasure of having a conversation this morning with Brett Bentley, Executive Director of the Food Bank of Nevada County. Good morning, Brett. Good morning. And welcome back to the airwaves. We just have a couple of minutes left, so I wonder, is there anything that you wanted to toss in there that I didn't ask you about? You know, I was just taking it all in this morning, listening to those great ads, great comments from Mike Bratton for Tom's GoFundMe campaign and local and how important it is. Hearing Randy's ad and Johnny Houlihan, who's coming here to support KNCO, but also he grew up here and what it meant to him. And we just have such a unique community, and it's a really special thing. And it's just hitting me as I think about, like, we do what we do because this community supports us. We are able to help feed our community and meet the need because the community shows up. The businesses show up. The radio station shows up. Thank you. But everybody shows up and they play their part. And I don't know if there's a lot of communities that are like that. I mean, it's special that we're a small town and we can do a lot of that. But just how important it is, the businesses that support us, the individuals that support us. It all takes a community. It all takes a village. And we have a pretty special one here. Yeah. And if you would like to help out with the Food Bank of Nevada County, there's more ways that you can do that than donating or giving food. But you can also do what Lori did or what your other volunteers. Correct. What kind of jobs are available for volunteers? That's a great question. So the first Thursday of every month, we have what we call Food for Thought. It's a one-hour overview. It's from 10 to 11. So we have it this week at 10 a.m. on Thursday. You can come to the Food Bank. I do just a really brief presentation of who we are, what we do, how we do it. You get a tour of our warehouse. And we talk about opportunities that we have available. We have a lot coming up with the holidays. We have a lot of extra food drives that happen. We also have concessions. Legacy Presents works with us and allows us to do their concessions for them for their upcoming run of Little Women. And we get to take all the proceeds from that and donate it back to the Food Bank. So it's a really wonderful thing. It's a great way for us to raise money and interact and collaborate with the community. There's all kinds of opportunities to volunteer with us. So please come in or just give us a call or check out our website. We're always happy to talk to people and answer questions about ways you can help us. And what is the location for the Food Bank? We are located in Grass Valley. We are over off of Railroad Avenue in Grass Valley. Okay. So you can stop by and get information there. Correct. And if you want to make a donation, you can do that at that location as well. You can walk it in the door and talk to us or you can just do it online. It's very easy at foodbankofnc.org. All right. So, yeah, once again, foodbankofnc.org. And we've been talking with Brett Bentley. And two weeks from today. Wow. Yeah, come out on the 16th. Drive by. Give us a donation. Honor Tom. We would love that. And our staffing forbids us from sending out too many people. But I understand that from our sales department, Mary Ann and Randy will be there. Yes. They will be there. I'll be out there with some of my staff. And we'll be having fun. Come join us. Rain or shine. Okay. And what are the hours for that? I believe it's 10 to 2 p.m. 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. We'll be out in front of Save Mart on Monday, November 16th. Thank you, Brett. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. I appreciate jumping in. --- end of transcript ---