A Quadzilla-inspired smoothie now available at Bona Fide

Rachel Sankey

Past Staff

September 20, 2023

NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – Proceeds from a certain smoothie are going toward a greater cause at Bona Fide Juicery.

The Quadzilla smoothie, created through a partnership between the juicery and Green Bay Packers’ running back AJ Dillon, is giving back to local schools.

Nicole Lindquist, co-owner of Bona Fide Juicery – which has locations throughout Northeast Wisconsin – said the entire smoothie creation/partnership process took a few weeks to prepare.

“(Dillon) and his wife run an Instagram page called @diningwiththedillons, and it is popular among our customers,” she said. “So, we reached out a few weeks ago and decided to do a partnership. They have stopped in our stores frequently, so we thought it would be a good fit.”

Lindquist said she knew there had to be a larger purpose than just collaborating to create a themed smoothie.

A portion of each Quadzilla smoothie goes toward purchasing copies of AJ Dillon’s recent children’s book release, Quadzilla Finds His Footing, to donate to local elementary schools. Photo Courtesy of Bona Fide Juicery

“AJ and his wife are into doing things for the community and giving back,” she said.

Since Dillon recently released his new children’s book, “Quadzilla Finds His Footing,” Lindquist said the Bona Fide team came up with the idea to take a portion of the proceeds from the smoothie to purchase copies of Dillon’s new book for local elementary schools.

A smoothie with an impact
After testing out a few different variations, the final version of Dillon’s Quadzilla smoothie is made up of mango, spinach, kale, banana, vanilla whey, creatine, almond butter and apple juice.

Lindquist said the smoothie will be offered until supplies run out, which she expects to be about two months.

“We’re going to announce when it’s coming to an end when we get the last of our supplies,” she said. “It was hard to get the quantity of whey protein we needed in the first place to start the smoothie.”

Bona Fide Juicery has six different locations: one in Neenah, Appleton, De Pere, Howard and two in Green Bay.

While Lindquist said she doesn’t have a specific list of select schools the books will be donated to, she said the plan is for them to be distributed to public elementary schools near Bona Fide’s six locations.

“We have it broken out in our system so we know how many Quadzilla smoothies we’ve sold,” she said. “We don’t have a goal, as we weren’t sure how the response would be. So far our customer response has been great, so if it keeps up, we will end up donating a lot of books.”

Since the launch of the Quadzilla smoothie Sept. 8, Lindquist said customers both near and far have been excited about the collaboration.

Nicole Lindquist
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“We have had a lot of people coming in,” she said. “When people are visiting from out of town when they’re coming for a game – they’re hoping to be able to stop in before the game and try it, which has been really cool. It’s a great way to get people from out of town to pop in and support both AJ and us.” 

Lindquist said there have also been a lot of younger football fanatics coming in.

“I think they get their parents to bring them in, but we’ve had a lot of younger boys coming in with their Packers apparel to come try the smoothie,” she said. “So that’s been fun.”

The importance of working together
When there are like-minded people in the community looking to give back, Lindquist said it’s important to work together, and hopes Bona Fide’s partnership with Dillon serves as an example.

“Our next phase of business – since we’ve been open for almost seven years now – we’re seeing who aligns with giving back and (Dillon) was the best fit,” she said. “We noticed he is extremely into giving back and with the children’s book – he released it at about the same time we came up with the idea (to collaborate), so it worked very nicely.”

Lindquist said the partnership was also a way to support Dillon after everything he’s done for the community.

“He brings so much to the area,” she said. “He is always posting about different restaurants around the area, and he supports a lot of local businesses… So in the same theme of him giving back, this is our way to partner with him to, in a way, help him give back as well so we can get his book to local schools.”