Thanks to Meijer Corp., Hungry For Christ Food Ministries now has not one but two semi tractor trucks it can use to pick up all of the food donations.
Meijer delivered a 2012 Freightliner semi tractor to the Hamilton nonprofit Thursday, Nov. 30, with fresh decals marking it as Hungry For Christ’s second truck.
“Meijer has been an absolute blessing to us,” said Hungry For Christ’s warehouse manager, Dave Rockhold.
Hungry For Christ executive director Tracy Brower said Meijer first donated a truck in 2013, back when the organization was still at a much smaller location near Bentheim. Having moved in to 44,000-square-foot facility—the former Hamilton Eggs facility at 4565 135th Ave.—in Hamilton in 2016, the ministry is busier than ever.
“(This truck) will be a huge blessing for us here at Hungry for Christ,” Brower said. “We go out weekly, sometimes daily, to go pick up donated food items from all over the place. Very exciting day for us... and we want to say thank you, Meijer, for your partnership; you guys have blessed us greatly.”
See the new truck in action and Brower thank Meijer in this video.
In 2016, the all-volunteer ministry distributed more than 3.1 million pounds of food reaching 11 counties throughout west Michigan.
Volunteer driver John Stremler, a semi-retired truck driver, said they mainly end up at companies in the Grand Rapids area that donate food, everywhere from Mel Trotter to Gordon Foods to Request Foods, Heinz and Michigan Turkey.
Brower said she knew the organization would need a second truck when they opened the new facility.
“Just because of how much we had grown,” she said. “So I wrote Meijer last fall and found out a couple months ago they were going to be giving us another one. They called this week to ask us when we wanted it delivered.”
She said it meant a lot to Hungry for Christ.
“We’ve become established now and we want to be able to reach out into the community to help more people,” Brower said. “Maybe this will even let us expand our areas and touch more lives with food donations.”
Working for Hutt Trucking specializing in proper food storage, she and her husband Curt founded Hungry for Christ out of their own refrigerators in 2000.
“We want to make a great impact in our community and beyond,” she said.
Meijer’s help for Hungry for Christ doesn’t stop with the truck donations. The two have partnered to provide hunger relief in west Michigan through the Holiday Simply Give campaign which is ongoing through Dec. 30.
It runs three times a year, according to Meijer’s website. “Customers are encouraged to purchase a $10 donation card upon checkout. Once purchased, the donation is converted into a Meijer Food-Only Gift Card and donated directly to the local food pantry selected by the store for that campaign.”
Those donations are doubled on Double Match Days on Dec. 8-9, so every $10 donated turns into $30.
For more information, visit Hungry For Christ on Facebook, at www.hungryforchrist.org or call (616) 688-7420.
Contact Ryan Lewis at rmlewis@allegannews.com or (269) 673-5534.
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