Banjo’s Buddies: Promoting Solutions for Juvenile Diabetes is sponsoring Stephanie Stuckey, CEO of Stuckey’s Corp., in her talk to the Women Grocers of America at the upcoming NGA Show in Las Vegas.
Joe Moody, founder of Banjo’s Buddies, said he knew his diabetic alert dog, Banjo, would be “perfect for empowering women when he licked the toes of a WGA board member just before her presentation during the NGA/ROFDA show three years ago.”
Moody said that “sealed the deal” between the two organizations.
“We are extremely proud and honored, in cooperation with WGA, to be sponsoring Stephanie Stuckey,” who will discuss how being an unconventional leader can be the secret to success, while sharing personal stories of the comeback of her own business, Moody said.
Stuckey will speak on “The Myth of the Girl Boss: Making Vulnerability Your Superpower” from 1:15-2 p.m. on March 1, Room: Forum 111-112.
Education is the goal for nonprofit
Joe Moody, SVP of sales at Smart.Market, has been a Type 1 diabetic for 36 years. He described himself as “very healthy” until about six years ago, when he began having episodes of hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Since he travels so much for work and his wife can’t always be with him, they found Banjo through Diabetic Alert Dogs of America.
Banjo’s Buddies originally was created to raise money to buy Diabetic Alert Dogs for underprivileged families who have children diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. The goal was to launch the organization after the 2019 NGA Show in San Diego. Moody said while he and Banjo were at the NGA Show, they met several independent grocers whose families had been affected personally by diabetes.
“Contact information was exchanged, and conversations started to take place. Those conversations became very educational about how diabetes had not only impacted their immediate families, but the families of their employees and people in the communities they serve,” Moody said.
Through those conversations, Moody said he felt there was a “true need out here in the marketplace, especially in the independent grocers’ communities” for educating people about diabetes, Type 1 specifically.
“Something John Ross [IGA president and CEO] has always said, and I agree with him on, is the independent grocer truly has something that no one else, none of the big brand grocers have, and that is the opportunity to truly be a part of their community and get involved in their community,” Moody said. “They can let [their community] know that ‘hey, I’m a business owner, my company’s here, I employ all these local people.’”
Diabetes, especially Type 1, can have an impact on independent grocers’ employees, their customers and the communities they also serve, Moody said.
“We felt like this would be a great opportunity to not only educate the independent grocer and their employees, but let them become the source of the outreach to the community in educating them about diabetes,” he said.
“Diabetes is truly at epidemic proportions, is the most misunderstood disease and the fastest growing disease in the world,” he added.
The focus for Banjo’s Buddies changed to education and spreading the word through the independent grocer community is the goal for the nonprofit organization.
Moody suggested starting with the managers of independent grocery stores and some of their employees in educating them about Type 1 diabetes and what impact it can have on their employees and customers.
“Because what people don’t realize is that with a Type 1 diabetic, your blood sugar is either going down or going up,” he said. “Everything about you changes and one major thing that changes is your attitude.”
Moody said when he is experiencing low blood sugar, he often doesn’t know his name.
“So just imagine if you’re a cashier, and you’re checking someone out, and no one really around you knows anything about diabetes, but they know you’re a diabetic,” he said. “You might be saying things to your customers, that they’re saying, ‘Gosh, this person is crazy, what’s going on with this person?’ It could create a sort of a funky situation between that customer and employee.”
However, Moody said if other employees are educated about diabetes and what can happen during a low sugar episode, that’s a great opportunity to step in, help their coworker and educate the customer.
Banjo’s Buddies can place information in the stores to help educate and inform the public about Type 1 diabetes.
Moody said he also would like to see independent grocers form teams of employees that can go out into their communities and help educate people about diabetes.
He said he would like to see pop-up displays of Banjo in stores, where people can gather information about Type 1 diabetes and, in the aisles, he would like to have “shelf talkers.” These would convey the message that the product is diabetic friendly or is great if you have children going into a low blood sugar episode.
Moody said the organization is in the process of building a website, banjosbuddies.org. It is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
For more information on Banjo’s Buddies, contact Moody at [email protected].
For information on WGA, click here.
