GRAND RAPIDS, MI - One Grand Rapids brewery is doing its part to fight childhood hunger.
When you buy a kid's meal at Brewery Vivant, 925 Cherry St. SE, they will donate five sack meals to Kids' Food Basket, a nonprofit organization that supplies healthy meals to nearly 7,500 kids each weekday in West Michigan.
"It is especially fulfilling to us to know that we're underwriting meals for families in our neighborhood, at our neighborhood school," said Kate Avery, abbess of beer and director of sales of marketing.
"We believe that a great business exists because of the support of the local community. Therefore, a business should be an active extension of the community and should strive to find meaningful ways to give back. This is one of our ways."
Brewery Vivant began the partnership with Kids' Food Basket in 2016 and plans to continue it for the foreseeable future. The brewery sponsors up to 60 kids sack suppers five days a week for the school year. That's more than 14,000 meals.
Much of the brewery's staff also spends time volunteering at Kids' Food Basket, packing lunches and suppers for those children in need.
The brewery's kid's meal is about $5 and consists of scratch-made PB&Js, mac-and-cheese and hamburgers. Staff has seen an uptick in kid's meal orders since promoting the Kids' Food Basket partnership on the brewery's menu, Avery said.
I think it's a really tangible way that people can see they are helping," she said.
According to Feeding America, 1 in 6 children in the United States will worry about when they'll have their next meal. One in five children in West Michigan are affected by hunger, according to Kids' Food Basket.