RiceDepot.Org | Leave A Legacy

Leave A Legacy, Care For Arkansas

By Laura Rhea
Arkansas Rice Depot President & CEO

For more than two decades, Arkansas Rice Depot has been involved in a day to day battle against hunger in Arkansas. A measure of our success is that the hunger agencies that first came to pick up rice in the trunk of their cars now come with church vans, trailers and large trucks to pick up a generous supply of nutritious foods each month.

Five years ago Arkansas Rice Depot began Food For Kids, for the thousands of children who have problems in school due to a lack of adequate food at home. Now 502 public schools receive new backpacks and kid-friendly foods to send home to help under-nourished children get the necessary food to be able to succeed in school.

In times of disaster, Arkansas Rice Depot has become a key supplier of food and household supplies to church and community disaster centers.

In 2006, Arkansas Rice Depot distributed some 5,660,243 pounds of food through our statewide network of 310 food pantries serving 124,648 (unduplicated) households in Arkansas, and our 502 schools that provide food to 142,514 hungry school children.

Individuals, churches, rice growers, food companies, businesses, school children and countless volunteers supported Arkansas Rice Depot last year with gifts of cash, food and supplies valued at 10.5 million dollars. Over 99% of this went directly to feed hungry Arkansans. Less than 1% was spent for fundraising and administration. This may be the lowest overhead of any charity in Arkansas, and possibly in the whole country. No charity delivers more "benefits for the buck" or provides a greater return on investment than Arkansas Rice Depot.

Convinced there will always be a need to invest in good nutrition for Arkansas' most vulnerable citizens, the Board of Arkansas Rice Depot has initiated a trust Fund to strengthen the long-term work of Arkansas Rice Depot. The Trust fund will be built with estate gifts from donor bequests, charitable trusts and annuities and endowments. To develop and manage the Trust Fund, we have asked Jerry Bedford to serve as Trustee of the Trust Fund.

In this capacity, Mr. Bedford will be available to consult with donors and their advisors to help them accomplish their charitable and financial aims in the most expert, tax-wise manner. He will also assure that all annuities, trusts, and endowments received by Arkansas Rice Depot Trust Fund are professionally managed and invested.

Mr. Bedford recently retired from Heifer Project International where he established the Heifer International Foundation and built it's assets to $40 million. He is a member of the Arkansas Chapter of the National Committee of Planned Giving and was one of the first people in Arkansas to be accredited as a Certified Fund Raising Executive. Mr. Bedford is presently CEO of Raven Enterprises, a private investment group with domestic and international interests, both commercial and philanthropic.

Jerry is married to Anna Bedford who is Director of Communications for Heifer Project International. They have two adult daughters living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Taipei, Taiwan. Jerry and Anna are members of First Presbyterian Church, Little Rock.

Your regular contributions to Rice Depot will help provide food for people who are hungry today; your estate gifts to Arkansas Rice Depot Trust Fund will allow us to feed the hungry for years to come.

Thank you for each and every gift.

Passing On Your Values

By Jerry Bedford
Trustee, Arkansas Rice Depot Trust Fund

In the realm of material wealth, many of us are "self-made". We didn't inherit much from our parents. Everything we have is the result of our own work, saving and investing.

But in the realm of spiritual values, all of us are debtors to those who came before us. We didn't invent the values of honesty, thrift and compassion that have enriched our lives. We inherited these values from others. Not everyone is so blessed.

We who have inherited these values should pass them on to others. If we want our children and our community to be responsible and compassionate, we must communicate these values by the way we live. We also communicate them by the way we allocate our resources both in this life and as we prepare for the next.

A Will is simply written instructions of how we want our things distributed after we are gone. If we don't write a Will, the state will distribute our assets as they see fit, which may not be the way we would have wished. So everyone should write a Will.

Our will distributes not only material goods; it also passes on our values, either directly or indirectly.

In considering bequests to loved ones, we need to ask: What are their needs? How well do they handle money? Would they be better off receiving a big amount all at once or an annual income for life? Do we want our bequest to embellish an already rich life style? Will our bequest strengthen the values we embrace in the people we love?

We should also consider the causes we cherish when writing our Will. Do we want to continue our caring by remembering in our Will those charities that express in their work we uphold?

Through the way we write our Will, and through the creative use of charitable trusts and annuities, we can pass on not just our valuables but also those values that have guided and enriched our lives.

We get a happy bonus when passing on our values and valuables through a charitable trust or annuity. That bonus is tax savings now, increased lifetime income for ourselves, and the possibility of lifetime income for loved ones after we are gone. Afterwards the remainder becomes a Named Endowment in the Arkansas Rice Depot Trust Fund to help hungry children and families in perpetuity or for as long as that help is needed.

These and other creative, tax-saving plans are available to help you achieve your financial and charitable aims. For free information and help in determining what plans work best for you, print, complete & return the form below to: Jerry Bedford, Trustee - Arkansas Rice Depot Trust Fund, 3801 West 65th St., Little Rock, AR 72209. You may also call me at (501) 865-8855 or (501) 225-9375.

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