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March 10, 2025
NORTHEAST WISCONSIN – A Green Bay-area refreshment supplier and caterer is looking to expand its philanthropic reach beyond the city of the green and gold by establishing a new company-based foundation.
Taylor Stahlke – a national account executive at BE’S Refreshments and the president of its new foundation – said the company began the process of establishing its charitable foundation after she introduced the idea to CEO Joe Eggener in 2023.
“I had approached Joe with this idea, and he was on board with it,” she said. “(He) supported me (in choosing) to start this and form a board and figure out the ‘how-tos.’”
Stahlke said BE’S – which serves the refreshment and catering needs of businesses and private individuals across the Northeast Wisconsin region and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan – had been giving back to the Northeast region long before the foundation was created.
“(Even) before the foundation was (created), BE’S has always given back to the community,” she said. “They have donated their excess resources – specifically food and drink items – to different local charities and shelters, such as Paul’s Pantry and St. John’s Ministries in the Green Bay area.”
Stahlke said the foundation – officially named BE’S Gives Back – was established to help broaden the reach of BE’S philanthropic work.
“We really needed something that was more structured,” she said. “Something where there was a committee that helped organize everything, and also people who were willing to carve out the time and effort to expand beyond Green Bay.”
So, after presenting the idea to Eggener, Stahlke began working toward just that – defining the mission of the foundation, creating goals and organizing a board of other interested BE’S employees.
“Creating a foundation does not happen overnight,” she said. “It did take about a year to get everything legally set up, get a board (together) and figure out the structure and the plan. That brought us to the end of 2024 when the first donation was made.”
BE’S Mission
Stahlke said BE’S Gives Back was largely created to help broaden the reach of BE’S Refreshments’ charitable actions.
“Our service area (extends) pretty far,” she said. “So, why not help out those communities in the UP that are supporting us? Let’s support them as well by giving back with our excess resources.”
According to the company’s website (besrefreshments.com), BE’S Gives Back “is a private foundation created by BE’S Refreshments striving to provide assistance to those in the communities BE’S serves. BE’S Gives Back will generate funds and donation items within BE’S Refreshments, along with external donations to give back to assistance programs and other charitable organizations.”
Stahlke said the foundation mission statement was intentionally written to be general as it allows the foundations to help in charitable areas outside of the refreshment industry.
“Food is what we do, and at first we were going to make it just food focused,” she said. “But then, we thought, ‘Well, what if this becomes very successful and we can do more than just food?’ Maybe we can fill backpacks for students who may need a little extra help in the beginning of the school year or something like that.”
Since its first at the end of 2024, Stahlke said BE’S Gives Back has made “quite a few food donations, which has been really exciting.”
“One of our board members is in charge of the operations of our fulfillment center, so all of our snack, drink and food orders – everything like that,” she said. “When there are items that we can’t sell – whether it is a close-dated item, a can or something that’s maybe dented, or something where the product is still good, but for whatever reason, we can’t sell it – he has a team that goes through and finds all those items.”
Those good-yet-unsellable items, Stahlke said, are then donated to various “local organizations.”
“We’ve (donated to) the Salvation Army, House of Hope, Amanda’s House, Mandolin Foundation, Freedom House – just to name a few,” she said. “We’ve been doing that almost every week, which has been amazing.”
Refreshing enthusiasm
When establishing the foundation, Stahlke said she was concerned that the employees’ excitement about contributing to its charitable mission would wane over time.
That fear, she said, was quickly put to rest.
“What’s been amazing is people make a donation and they call me and they’re like, ‘that felt so good, I loved doing that,’” she said. “We’ve been making donations, and people have cried because they needed (them) so badly. So that has been amazing.”
The BE’S Gives Back foundation board is made up of nine members, Stahlke said.
“They are all employees of BE’S Refreshments,” she said. “So we have myself as president, there’s a vice president, secretary, treasurer, an executive director and then four other directors.”
Right now, the BE’S Gives Back team, Stahlke said, is preparing to donate a raffle basket to be bid on at an adult prom charity event benefiting the Green Bay-based nonprofits You Belong and We All Rise.
“We’ll be doing a lot of those types of things,” she said. “We have monthly board meetings, so every month, people bring us their ideas and what’s coming up and how we can help.”
Stahlke said because BE’S Gives Back is still a young foundation, their “arms (are) wide open” for organizations to take advantage of the help it is eagerly waiting to give.
“(We want) people to reach out to us to see if we’d be a good match and help them,” she said. “We have a community page on our website. (That) is where people can get in contact with us.”
Visit besrefreshments.com/community to learn more.
