Consumers Energy Foundation gifts $250K to Community Food Club

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A nonprofit grocery store is getting major upgrades thanks to an award from the Consumers Energy Foundation.

The foundation awarded the Community Food Club in Grand Rapids $250,000 for its 2024 People Award. AJ Fossel, the Community Food Club executive director, said the grant was needed because around 90,000 people in Kent County are food insecure.

She said the store helps all county residents facing food insecurity find access to inexpensive and fresh food. Fossel said they have been seeing an increase in people, so the store needs upgrades.

“When we started nine years ago, we never anticipated our store being used by over 8500 people a month. We found ourselves in need of changes to the store floor to accommodate the growing number of shoppers and equipment to help us process and stock the 160,000 pounds of food that we’re giving away each month. And that’s where the Consumers Energy Foundation has come in,” Fossel said.

The grant will help the store get new checkout lanes, update its database, buy a new produce cooler and make other updates.

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