Ron chats Katie Stagliano 11/18/2023

None

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It's Glenn Beck weekday mornings at nineoh six on fifty five krc the talkstation.
Here is your ninth first yearning forecast. Today sunny fifty two, Tonight
clear thirty two, Sunday sunny fiftysix, Monday fifty three with a chance
of afternoon showers, Tuesday showers.We'll take it all high a fifty seven
degrees seven four nine fifty five hundredHere at fifty five KRCD Talk Station.

(00:25):
Welcome back. You're in the gardenwith Ron Wilson. And as I promise,
she is with us again this year. And it's such a pleasure to
always have this young lady with us. And what's interesting is we've been talking
to her since she was nine yearsold. Go to her website. It's
Katiescrops dot com KA T I ES krps. And she has done so

(00:45):
many great things since she was nineyears old. And the interesting thing is
Joe Strecker was our producer at thetime, and Joe and I if we
got off the phone with Katie,we said that young lady is going somewhere
because at nine years old, wethought we were talking to an eighteen year
old. It was phenomenal. Sheknew exactly what she was gonna do,
and she's been doing it again.Go to her website to check it out.
And she is with us this morning, folks, the founder and chief

(01:07):
executive gardener for Katie's Crops, KatieStagliano, Good morning, Good morning.
How are you. I am great. I have goosebumps, as I always
do when we have you on theshow, because every time I talk to
you, you're getting another award oryou're doing something else that's absolutely great for
the community, feeding the hungry,getting kids involved, gardening. It's phenomenal.

(01:30):
But last night, your mom emailsme and I'm glad I caught it
because one another great honor, SouthernLiving magazine has named Katie one of is
I think six of the twenty twentythree Southerners of the Year. That was
such an incredible surprise. We Idon't even have the words. I did

(01:57):
an interview with them and they sentme the magazine and I opened it and
I was like, oh my goodness, this wasn't just an interview. I
was like, this is the mostincredible thing. So it was an incredible
honor, a really great surprise,and just a wonderful way of the year.
Oh absolutely, and of course endingthe year. I know between now

(02:17):
and the holiday season, you've gota lot going on with all the things
that you do. But I justI grew pulled that up on my cell
phone at home last night. Iwent, oh, my gosh, you've
got to be kidding me. Andof course when I got the studios this
morning, I was able to printit out so I could read it.
But congratulations, young lady, thankyou, thank you so much. Can

(02:38):
you believe we've been talking to yousince you were nine years old? No,
I literally cannot believe that. Andevery single year when we put out
our grower search, this is whatI'm most excited for. I'm like,
oh, I get to go onthe Ron Wilson Show again. It is
the highlights of every year for me. Excellently, we love having you on.

(02:58):
Just so folks under standing and goto her website so you can learn
more about what where this all started. But and it's Katie's Crops and that's
what two ks katieescrops dot com.But this all started when Katie was in
the third grade with the cabbage programfrom Bonnie Plants, and she grew a
forty pound cabbage and basically you tookit to a was it a food shelter

(03:19):
or a homeless shelter or food kitchen. I took it to a local soup
kitchen in my community and they madecabbage stew out of it. And what
you fed like two hundred and seventyfive guests or something like that. Gues
My one cabbage, which is mindblowing to me, helped to feed two

(03:39):
hundred and seventy five people. Andthat was it for me. I was
hooked. I thought, if onecabbage can help to feed two hundred and
seventy five people, then imagine howmany people an entire garden can feed.
And that was what inspired me tostart Katie's Cross. And of course that
was at nine ten years old,and your parents fully supported you, and

(04:01):
you know, we got Katie's Crops, the website going, and it's all
just gone from there and it's crazy. And of course today we're going to
talk you know, after the break, we're going to talk more about the
Katie's Gardens than trending to get thosein every state throughout the United States.
But you know, it's you've donea couple things here, well, You've
done a lot of things here,but you know, the thing I always
love is getting kids involved with gardening. And you know you took that when

(04:25):
you were young. And the footballsized garden that you first started out with
and got everybody with, was thatan old football field or just something at
the school or it was just somy first garden ended up being a gardener
at my old school that was quiteliterally the size of football field. It
was just an empty field they had. They said, go for it,

(04:46):
this is yours. And what's evencrazier is now we have moved our flagship
garden to the campus of Crossfords CommunityChurch in my community and it's the size
of two football fields now. SoI just can continues to grow. And
it's been amazing because that garden inour community has helped us grow and donate

(05:10):
over seven thousand pounds of produce andwe're not done for the year yet,
so we're definitely having a record makingyear in our flagship garden of the amount
of produce that we are going tobe able to donate to those struggling with
hunger and food insecurity in the community, which is amazing and that just blows
me away and again, the twothings here is getting kids involved with gardening,

(05:33):
which is absolutely outstanding, and thentaking what they're growing and donating most
of it or all of it tohelp feed the homeless. The shot that
folks that don't have something neat tostarving to help feed them and now doing
this in every state throughout the UnitedStates is crazy. It's just crazy that
you've been doing this, but makesme smile every time I see your name

(05:57):
pop up. Trust me, yousaid you were excited to be on our
show. I feel like you're oneof our kids from the show that you
know, and it's been so greatwatching you go through all this. As
a matter of fact, I thoughtthis was interesting through the through all of
the years of doing this, oversix hundred thousand pounds of produce you have
come up with through your Katie's Cropsprogram, Yes, and that is all

(06:19):
grown and donated by our amazing useKatie Crops growers across the country. These
are kids between the ages of sevenand seventeen years old, and they are
just proving that age is just numberand you can make an incredible impact.
So they are really saying, whatcan we do for our communities to help

(06:44):
provide a healthy solution to hunger andfood and security. And we have just
the most incredible Kties Crops growers,and I'm so excited to continue seeing the
impacts that they're able to make intheir communities. To add new growers to
our family. Just to hear allthese incredible stories and be able to empower
these kids is by far my favoritething. Oh I'll tell you what.

(07:08):
It's just again, it gives megoosebumps to know what you're doing out there.
And even during COVID. You toldus last year, even through all
the COVID that you guys were stillable to continue to feed those You had
the drive up programs where you couldcome and pick up food. You just
kept it going. You never sloweddown, never slowed down. We saw
during COVID there was such an increasein people who were struggling with hunger and

(07:30):
food and security and people who hadnever had to deal with this before.
And one of our main programs atKatie's Crops is are Katy's Crops Dinners.
They were traditionally sit down dinners andthey're based off the produce in our garden.
During COVID, we completely had tochange that model and switch it to
a drive through distribution, and whenit would sit down, it was between

(07:53):
one hundred and fifty and two hundredpeople. And now at our drive through
meal distributions, we do between sixhundred and fifty and steven hundred meals,
and we still prepare them. They'reall prepared and served by youth. We
just pass them into still boxes throughcar windows in the parking lot. And

(08:13):
I don't think we'll ever be ableto go back to the way we were
doing it before, because there's somany people that we're not in need before
that now rely so heavily on thesedinners and share what a blessing they are
to their family, their friends,their neighbors. And so this is something
that we're going to keep going withon the long haul, just to be

(08:37):
there for everybody that is in needand that is newly facing hunger and food
and security. And of course Katieis trying to take this since she's in
South Carolina, take this to allthe states and get more kids and families
and parents involved in grandparents and all. So we're going to tell you how
you can be more involved with Katie'scrops, how your daughter son could be

(08:58):
grandson, the granddaughter or whatever canget more involved and have a Katie's Garden
in your backyard. How can youdo that? We're gonna tell you after
the break. Katie Stagliano with usthis morning. Her website is Katie's Crops
and that's with ks katiscrops dot com. More with Katie after the break.
Here in the Garden with Ron Wilson. Landscaping made easier with your personal yard

(09:20):
boy. He's Hit in the Gardenand he's Ron Wilson. Don't miss any
of your favorite shows. Get thepodcast on the iHeartRadio app at fifty five
KRC dot com. Blog gutters canreally cause a lot of water damage in

(09:43):
your home and my solution gutter brush. It's a brush that simply slides into
the gutter and keeps debris from cloggingthem. I've recommended gutter brush for years
and use it at my home.It's effective, affordable, and it's really
simple to install. Gutter Brush ismade in the USA, lifetime guarantee and
you'll protect your gutters for a fractionof what other systems cost. Order at

(10:03):
gutterbrush dot com or call eight eighteight three ninety seven ninety four thirty three
eight eight A three, ninety seven, ninety four thirty three. It's Gary
Salmon here. Does your home sidewalkat slippery? When went your pull deck
peeling? Where's your garage floor?Grungey? Tackle those unsightly surfaces with dice
Codings track safe anti slip color code, add color and slip resistance over pavers,

(10:26):
concrete, prepainted floors, and more. All you have to do is
paint. Dice Coatings pre mixed formulasare odorless, easy to apply in fast
drying. Plus they're designed to resistsun, snow, waterfoot and vehicle traffic.
Plan your next project at dice codingsdot com. That's dice Coatings dot
com. Brian Thomas weekday mornings atfive on fifty five KRC and online at

(10:50):
fifty five KRC dot com. Oh, it's the How two Saturday here on
fifty five KRC. Here's our lineup. Nine o'clock Gary Solomon for the
best nor Repairenthorme Improvement. One o'clockwe've got Dale Donovan and the Car Show,
Then the Weekend Dive, Victor Gray, Sean Hannity. Hey, it
all happens right here on fifty fiveKRC. The talk station. Welcome back
here in the Garden with Ron Wilsonand our special guest this morning. It's

(11:11):
always such a pleasure to have heron our show. Been talking to us
since she was nine years old.Been a long time, I'll tell I'll
be honest with her. Bye.She's twenty five right, yes, yes,
twenty five in August. Congratulations,and so we've been talking to her
for a long time. Katie Stagliana. Her website is Katie's Crops and that's
with ks katieescrops dot com. Hasdone such a great time job through all

(11:33):
the things she's doing through all theseyears now. Just named the twenty twenty
three Southerner of the Year through SouthernLiving magazine, which is unbelievable. Just
got that press release last night fromher mom. Uh. I'm glad to
tell her thank you for I didthank her for that, but for sending
that along. She's such a nicelady. She is the best and just

(11:54):
the best supporter. None of thiswould be possible without her. Well,
you know you look back, canyou? You know you're right? I
mean back then, I remember Ithink she was on the other phone when
you were talking to me, youknow, just listening to what you know,
you can kind of help along whatyou didn't need. But you know,
because I got what I told you. You've heard me say it before.
We thought Joe and I both said, man, that girl is going
to go somewhere. Are you sure? She's only nine years old? But

(12:18):
and you did, didn't let usdown, but just phenomenal support there,
and that's that's very, very important. And you've taken a young lady and
done a lot with it. Solet's tell folks what you're doing right now,
what you're looking for. So rightnow, we have just launched our
twenty twenty four Katie Scrubs Grower Search, and this year our Grower Search is

(12:41):
in a different format than it's beenin the past. We actually have it
online this year and we are alsodoing the majority of the application is in
form of a video, so thatway it is easier to really just showcase
your personality. It's how why youwant to become a grower, to give

(13:01):
us a good feel of the spacethat you will be growing in. And
we also because our Growers which isopen to kids between the ages of seven
and seventeen, I think this definitelyhelps the younger kids to make it a
lot easier to apply to become agrower. So we are very excited about

(13:22):
this and very excited to get tosee the faces and hear from all the
incredible kids that are going to applyto become growers. That's a great idea
because then you get to kind ofpersonally meet them through that video. Yes,
it's so fun because one of thethings that I wish I could do
is go and visit each and everyKaties Crops garden. So this is not

(13:45):
quite that, but it's very closeto it. The application will close on
January fifteenth this year, so alittle bit of extra time, and we
are so excited. We're looking forwardto seeing all these amazing kids apply to
join our growing family and make adifference in their communities. And of course

(14:09):
early applications are preferred, so getthem in as quickly as you can.
Katie likes them. Get them inthere so she gets to see you right
off the bat. Don't be oneof the last ones in here, be
one of the first. Set thebar up there for everybody else that comes
in after you. But let's getthem to her as quickly as you can.
And of course if they get approvedand you know, you give them
the check Marty and they're in whathappens at that point. So if you

(14:35):
are selected to join the Katie's Cropsgrowing family, we are going to provide
you with the funding, the supportfrom our Katy's Crops team, including our
master gardener who is there to reallyanswer any questions, help you out with
your garden plans, things like that. And you'll also get access to the
private Katie's Crops Grower website where you'llget to share your photos, track your

(14:58):
harvest, connect with other growers.So it really is like a family.
We'd love to connect our growers witheach other to be able to be there
to help out with any issues thatmay come up. If someone's like,
oh, I have these bugs eatingmy sweet potatoes, and someone else might
be like, oh I dealte withthat. This is what you do.

(15:20):
So it's a really great opportunity forthe kids to learn and grow at the
same time, no pun intended.I love it, And of course you
give them to get them the suppliesto get them started. Yes, so
within their funding it will be inthe form of a gift card to a
local garden center, a home improvementstore, wherever will work best for them

(15:43):
in their communities, and then theywill build out and start their gardens and
they get to pick where in theircommunities they will donate the produce, so
wherever they see the greatest need intheir communities, with people that donate to
senior citizens in their communities, totheir local homeless shelters, two kitchens,
food pantries, their backpack programs atschool, wherever they will be able to

(16:08):
make the greatest impact with their produce. And I see you have park Seed
as a part of the sponsors fortwenty twenty four. Yes, we'd love
our friends at park Seed. Theyare amazing and support us and so many
of our programs, especially our GrowerSearch. And we actually do have a
collection with park Seed, So ifanybody's looking for any seeds to maybe gifts

(16:32):
over the holidays or just get startedto plant with, if you go to
the park Seed website and find ourcollection, you will be donating back to
Katie's Crops with your purchase as well, which we love, so definitely be
sure to check that out as well. Yeah, so, if you're listening
to our show today and you don'thave a child or a grandchild or a

(16:52):
neighbor or whatever you'd like to helpdo this between the seven ages of seven
and seventeen. That's quite all rightbecause you can help kate these crops out
as well through your donations. Andthat's one way to do it, by
getting seeds for your own garden,and part of that goes back to the
to the kdi's crops as well.But folks can also donate directly to kdi's

(17:12):
crops. Yes, so on ourwebsite just ktiescrops dot com KTI with the
K and crops with the K,you can find information to donate to us
directly monetary donations. We have anAmazon wish list of items we can use
for our kids, crops, dinnersand for our gardens. And you can

(17:33):
also reach out if you are apart of an organization or a company that
offers grants or other programming to helpsupport us, that would be amazing as
well. And you can also seethe companies and organizations that sponsor us and
how to support them. And finally, we also have some of our school

(17:56):
gardens have their own Amazon muish listas well, so if you want to
look and see X there is aschool garden maybe in your state or somewhere
where you would like to support.You can read their stories on the Meet
our Grower's page of our website andalso see how to support them via an
Amazon wishlist. And this again,if for anybody listening, because we were

(18:18):
networked around the country, anybody listening, this is good for all the states
in the United States. Correct,yes, the states in the United States.
We would love, love, loveto have your support to get involved
and just to see how we cansupport your community. And trust me,
if you just simply donate to Katie'sCrops, you know where that money's going

(18:40):
to go, Katie and they doa fantastic job. You're supporting such a
great effort here. It's great.And again we're getting kids involved with gardening,
they're learning more about it and they'realso learning how to take help the
community to help other people. Youcouldn't ask for more when you're putting your
donation money out there, got alittle extra out there that you're looking for
at the end of the year,Katie's Crops could certainly use that as well.

(19:04):
And again, if you've got thatseven to seventeen year old that you'd
like to do a Katie's garden.Get it, you know, go to
the website, find out more aboutit, shoot that video, get it
done quickly, and get it toKatie. So maybe you'll be one of
the recipients as well. And allstates are included, so so be sure
and check that out. Katie Stagleono, you're doing so much. Do you

(19:25):
ever take any time off? Itake time off here and there. But
the great thing about Katie's Crops is, to me, it doesn't even feel
like work because it's doing something thatI love. I love getting to spend
time with the kids in the gardenand getting to spend time with the people
that I'm helping. So it honestlydoesn't feel like a job that I need

(19:48):
to take a break from. Itjust feels like I am so blessed to
get to do what I love everysingle day. Well, you can tell,
you can tell, but just inyour personality, I could tell when
you were nine years old that's theway you were gonna be. But yeah,
but don't forget to get leave alittle time for yourself as well,
to get out there and just relax. But you're doing such a great job,
and you're right if you're enjoying itand having fun and seeing such great

(20:11):
results that you're having. You knowyou sometimes you don't need the break,
You just want to keep at atKatie Stagliano, always a pleasure having you
on our show again. Our websiteis Katiescrops dot com. Be sure and
check it out. Apply for KatiescropsGarden. Katie, thank you so much.
Have a great holiday season. Tellyour mom thanks again, and keep
keep it up, kid, allright, take care Katie. Okay,

(20:37):
Katie Stagliono against Katiescrops dot com twentyfive years old and I'm still calling her
kid, but sorry, that's theway it goes. It's always be a
kid, right, been doing itsince nine years. I still can't believe
it anyway. I wish we hadsaved that interview. All right, we
take a break. We come back. Phone line are open for you at
eight hundred A two three eight twofive five. Don't forget our website.

(20:57):
I'm gonna call website. Ron WillilsonOnline dot com. Plann of the Week
recipes all kinds of great stuff onour Facebook page. In the Garden with
Ron Wilson, It's all happening herein the Garden with Ron Wilson, green
thumb or not. Ron can helpat one eight hundred eighty two three Talk

(21:21):
This Is in the Garden with RonWilson Brian Thomas, weekday mornings at five
on fifty five KRC and online atfifty five KRC dot com