By Krystal Moralee

When someone walks through the doors of a local food pantry, they see relief in the form of shelves stocked with groceries and refrigerators filled with fresh foods. What isn’t visible, though, is the infrastructure behind the scenes that makes those services possible.

Over the last few years the Community Foundation of St. Clair County has increased its focus on the capacity and work of local food pantries. A significant grant in late 2025 from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund allowed the Community Foundation to begin quickly turning around additional financial support designated for strengthening operations, improving food storage and distribution.

“In late 2024 our board agreed we needed to be more focused on single-purpose food providers,” said Randy Maiers, the Foundation’s President & CEO. “That advance work to build closer relationships with our food pantries allowed us to have a fairly quick turn-around after our friends at the Michigan Health Endowment Fund reached out to us.”

In the most recent round of grants, the Foundation provided capacity funding to eight local food providers. The funding comes at a time when food pantries are experiencing increased demand while working to adapt to ever-changing public assistance programs and rising food costs. The grants support essential improvements like refrigeration and freezer capacity, shelving, lighting upgrades, and other operational enhancements to help the organizations efficiently serve as many people as possible.

For Harbor Impact Ministries, the grant funded a new reach-in refrigerator and freezer that are helping transform the way food is distributed.

“We’re trying to provide more choice to our clients because not only do we have the Impact Day where our returning clients come in, but we also serve emergency food daily,” said Mike Weaver, director of Harbor Impact. “We don’t want to just give them a box every time and hope they use it. We want to give them some choice.”

The new glass-door refrigerator allows guests to see available foods and select items that fit their family’s needs, creating a more dignified experience while reducing waste. The equipment supports Harbor Impact’s larger mission of meeting people where they are.

Operating out of a 15,000-square-foot facility, Harbor Impact provides far more than food. Guests can also access clothing, household goods, hygiene products, and medical supplies, all at no cost. The organization serves approximately 500 families each month through its pantry and can assist as many as 1,000 people during its monthly Impact Day events.

At Lakeport Wesleyan Church, the new commercial freezer purchased with the grant funding is already making a noticeable difference.

“Now, with this bigger freezer, we can store more food, which then increased our amount of food to give away,” said Pantry Coordinator Mark Harrington. “It really helps us with our shopping experience because the stuff is more visible. We have more freezer space, and we can store different kinds of products.”

Like Harbor Impact, Lakeport Wesleyan’s pantry emphasizes choice and dignity. Rather than distributing pre-packed boxes, families shop for the foods they will actually use. The pantry serves approximately 700 families annually from both northeastern St. Clair County and southeastern Sanilac County.

The new freezer replaced a smaller residential unit that had become a limitation as demand increased. Harrington said the commercial side-by-side freezer was filled to capacity within weeks of installation.

Other grant recipients included:

• Faith Lutheran Pantry received funding for freezers to improve food storage capacity, serving an average of 140 to 185 families each month.
• The Salvation Army replaced two aging, inefficient freezers that support monthly food assistance for approximately 60 families and individuals, as well as hundreds of households served through Thanksgiving meals and Christmas food box programs.
• SOS Marysville Food Pantry added a two-door refrigerator and commercial shelving to support the approximately 280 individuals it serves each month.
• St. John’s UCC Food Pantry received funding for a new refrigerator and freezer, helping to strengthen services for roughly 250 individuals monthly.
• Blue Water Food Depot upgraded an outdated and energy-intensive lighting system, reducing operating costs and allowing more resources to be directed toward food purchases. The organization serves approximately 720 people each month.
• Freedom Lighthouse Fellowship received a commercial refrigerator and reach-in freezer to increase storage capacity for their Friday food giveaway, which supports about 100 families at a time

Together, the eight organizations represent thousands of local residents who rely on food assistance throughout the year. Better infrastructure means less waste and greater capacity to meet community needs. For the people seeking help, that translates to something crucial: access to nutritious food when they need it.

To learn more about the Community Foundation of St. Clair County and how local partnerships are helping strengthen food access across the region, visit stclairfoundation.org or contact the Foundation to learn how you can support this work.