A Recipe for Change: The Community Response to Hunger

A Recipe for Change: The Community Response to Hunger

River Valley, Michigan

Massive oak trees, farms and orchards, nearby Lake Michigan beaches, art galleries, and fine dining can all be found in the small southwest Michigan town of Three Oaks. So can hungry children.  

Since 2013, Vickie Wagner has fed kids in the River Valley School District. With support from the community and the Pokagon Fund, a nonprofit foundation supported by revenue from a local casino owned and operated by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Blessings in a Backpack program now feeds 79 children each week.  

Executive Director of the Pokagon Fund, Dan Peterson, says there are not a lot of programs centered in this area of southwest Michigan, just north of the Indiana border. “The Blessings program meets a critical need in our community. The Blessings program is a unique partnership between community volunteers, vendors, and the school district. It creates a consistent supply of food on the weekends when it might not otherwise be available.”  

The Pokagon fund has been supporting the Blessings program since it started.  

Program coordinator Vickie Wagner was a member of the Pokagon Fund’s Board of Directors. As a long-time community volunteer, she does most of the fundraising for the Blessings program. The number of children needing weekend food keeps growing, and Wagner knew she needed more help.  

She wrote letters to area businesses asking for their support. One found its way to Granor Farms, an organic vegetable and grain farm that hosts fine dining events and community benefit dinners. The staff at Granor Farms had already booked their community benefit dinners, but Chef Abra Berens took action! Vickie Wagner says Chef Abra was mad that kids were going hungry in their community.  

“It is shameful in this county, of all countries in the history of the world, that people, let alone children, are going hungry,” said Chef Abra. “Vickie’s letter mentioned that donations would be credited to the donor. It made me mad to think that people would only donate if they got credit—that feeding children wasn’t enough of a motivator.” 

Granor Farm has a Noveau Bean weekend each November. Chef Abra, who has authored three cookbooks focusing on organic cooking, enlisted four other local restaurants to participate in a “Not-Chili Cook-Off.” Granor Farms provided each with a stipend and 10 pounds of heirloom beans (each restaurant got a different variety). The restaurants provided five gallons of bean soup, and participants paid $25 a bowl for unlimited servings.   

Participants voted for their favorite entrée with a golden bean. The event raised almost $5,000 for the Blessings program! 

The employees at Granor Farms have continued to volunteer with the weekly packing and distribution of Blessings bags and plan to make the Not Chili Cook-off an annual event.  

Vickie Wagner said the community came together to promote the event. For example, the local grocery store inserted flyers in each customer’s bag and the participating restaurants encouraged their patrons to attend—all because she wrote a letter.  

“If you don’t reach out to people, no one will know you are here,” said Wagner.