On Thursday, January 21 Stu’s Clean Cookin’ franchise owner Keith Dake paired up with the Greenwood Police Department to distribute healthy meals to residents for the food patrol program.
Stu’s Clean Cooking, which opened opened in Greenwood last year, has distributed hundreds of meals to help feed the community. Additionally, the company takes part in healthy food giveaways throughout the River Valley.
The Fort Smith Police Department started the program with food donated by Clean Cookin’. On Thursday the Greenwood and Elkins Police Departments joined the program. “We can actually put food in people’s hands,” shared Clean Cookin’ owner Stuart Rowland. “We are here to help…We are excited that the program has spread this quickly.
The food patrol program has taken off.” According to Rowland, it has expanded from one department to three in just a couple of weeks. “We want to be a part of helping to rebuild our communities in 2021,” Rowland added.
“Stu’s Clean Cookin’ reached out to us to see if we’d be interested in helping them with a food giveaway in Greenwood,” shared Assistant Police Chief, Captain Richie Wolford. “By the nature of the job, our officers are aware of folks who would be appreciative of assistance so it was a mutually beneficial partnership. These are some tough times right now for a lot of people so we were glad to be able to help them.” Police Chief Will Dawson also expressed his appreciation stating, “it was very generous of the business to give to the needy in the community. It was a privilege for us to participate.”
For Dake, he is proud to continue in the humanitarian path of the company’s founder. “Taking on a small business during a pandemic is not always an easy task, but as we slowly began getting our feet underneath us, we wanted to begin following in the footsteps of Stu’s Clean Cookin Founder/Owner, Stuart Rowland. He has set an example that we admire and inspired us to simply do more. Especially right now, when so many Americans are hurting. We, as a brand, want to be a bright spot and hopefully start a trend and get more people actively involved in just helping one another and showing acts of kindness.“