Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew Klutz.
Hi Drew, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My life partner Tim McLamb and I helped care for his mom, Mama Edna, during her cancer treatments. When we lost her to a broken hip at the end of her treatments, I felt strongly about starting an NPO in her name to honor her life-long legacy of giving, paying it forward and feeding others. Over the first decade, The Mama Edna Project focused primarily on helping cancer victims with nutrition, juicing and financial assistance for food security. In April 2024, I decided to leave my job and after 42 years of retail management for other organizations, I decided it was my time at 57 yers old to open my own store. And this was born Mama Edna’s Thrift Shop where I could pay homage to her love of thrifting and her passion for giving back.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The journey has been very exciting. My years of long-retail hours have definitely helped guide my journey, but there is no way to truly understand how challenging the process of opening a customer-facing business is until you go SOLO. Struggles include the legalities of getting building permits, business licenses and understanding fire codes all the way to how to get product on your own, websites, social media, volunteers. But all of these struggles have led me here to almost my one year anniversary of my store opening on March 28th.
We’ve been impressed with The Mama Edna Project, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Hi! I’m Drew Klutz, founder and CEO of The Mama Edna Project, a 501-3C supporting food security in the Triangle. Mama Edna Honeycutt McLamb was diagnosed with lung cancer in late 2012, a few short months after her 74th, Pink-Hair Birthday. She grew up on the family farm in McGees crossroads where everyone referred to her as Mama Edna. In the early months of 2013, her children, husband and I took turns driving Mama Edna to appointments. During this time, we discovered that many folks with debilitating conditions are often alone and lack support and the financial means to sustain them before, during and post treatments.
We often juiced for Mama Edna and discovered how well her body responded, and in doing so, discovered how helpful this process was for so many folks who needed nutritional boosts in their diets. Thus, began the mission of paying it forward for Mama Edna. We bought several juicers in early 2013 before Mama Edna got her heavenly wings in May. It was then that we began our journey to creating an official nonprofit to honor her legacy of helping others. In August 2013, in the same week we got our finalized paperwork from Elaine Marshall’s office at the Secretary of State, friends in Jamestown, NC helped out by creating our first fundraiser full of music and food and juicing!!
Over the next decade, we bought many juicers for folks, spent lots of 💲money 💲 on fresh, organic produce for juicing and eating and sustaining folks. We grew mountains of wheat grass and delivered it to homes. We did in home demos of juicers and made folks comfortable with the process. We made trips to doctors offices with clients when no one else could go. We helped win some cancer battles and we lost a few, but every family felt that our support gave a better quality of life no matter the ultimate outcome.
In 2020 when COVID struck and everyone was isolated, we discovered there were folks in need of food and that 1 in 5 people in North Carolina were and STILL are suffering from food insecurity. Our aid became mostly food gift cards. We now have a thrift store to bring more awarenss and much more fundraising to the food security platform. From this spot is where our journey will continue…..(side note, Mama Edna loved pink and she loved butterflies, hence the logo. She also loved her juice like medicine, so we will have that process at our core.) Thanks so much for your support over the years and for your continued support as we make this dream a reality. Food security is a human right that we must help all people have.
As a retail manager for over 40 years, the obviously choice for me was my own nonprofit thrift shop where I could blend all of my retail jobs and my passion for helping others and helping the planet into one mission. My 15 year Macy’s Mens career, along with 6 years at Sur La Table and a little over 6 at Habitat ReStore-Cary brought me to this blend called Mama Edna’s Thrift Shop, a place where I could be me, a place where we do serious work, but we don’t ourselves too seriously, a place where I could make friends that extended into the community that I am trying help and a place where ALL of my work helped locally.
As far as our brand, I am most proud of being recognized in our first 11 months as a very friendly, helpful, loving and compassionate place to come and hang out, give back with donations and volunteerism, and shop for unique finds that we keep out of the landfill and where every purchase literally helps buy food. We are still growing and we take on a few more projects every month. We are very proud to call Cary home and to be able to help families here on the ground in the Triangle of North Carolina.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Tenacity, creativity, sheer will power…..love and compassion.
Pricing:
- often below market market compared to stores of our kind
- essentials are priced to go, things you need over things you “want”
- Evolving into a more standardized list
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.themamaednaproject.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themamaednaproject?igsh=MTQzeGtzbmJmMmlyMw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheMamaEdnaProject?
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-mama-edna-project/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mama.ednas?_r=1&_t=ZT-948KcbhBBqH
