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Local food business professionals like Chef Tommy Fitgerald and food broker Kevin VanderMeer have been an important part of Kids’ Food Basket’s success, but not just for their culinary skills, according to executive director Bridget Clark Whitney. The KFB champions help promote the organization’s mission in the community, telling the story, organizing events and helping procure food for the sack dinners. The organization’s mission struck a chord with the chefs in the region and they have stepped up to support the organization’s fundraising efforts as well as connect KFB with food purveyors in the region.

Tommy Fitzgerald
Café Stella
Sitting in his café on Front Street, Fitzgerald is surrounded by, of all things, sock monkeys. They’ll play a role in this year’s Juice Ball, a birthday party for the chef and several hundred of his closest friends at the JW Marriott, to raise money for juice boxes that go into the sack suppers. This year’s party has a medieval theme – and the sock monkeys are to be loaded into a catapult. You might guess the rest. Despite the lighthearted tone of the party, the chef gets serious about the impact the organization has on the community.
“Juice Ball has been a miracle — talk about getting more than what you put in. I’m putting on a party, but it has put me in touch with great mentors,” Fitzgerald said. “We are not building rocket ships here, this is wicked easy. It is not that hard: Do something. People expect me to swear, be a prima donna, to be outspoken. If you have those tools at your disposal, use them.”

Kevin VanderMeer
Michaels & Associates
VanderMeer tapped 42 of his colleagues in the American Culinary Federation of Greater Grand Rapids to turn the area’s culinary awards into an annual fundraiser for KFB at Noto’s Old World Dining. In addition to the fundraising events, VanderMeer leverages his connections through Michaels & Associates, the foodservice company where he is a partner, to help the nonprofit procure low-cost, nutritional food.
“As a foodservice broker, we have a lot of resources in food industry to help KFB solicit items in the sack dinners. We are working to get other brokers involved, and we know we have a lot of manufacturers that have what we need,” VanderMeer said.

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TAGS:

• café stella
• kevin vandermeer
• kids’ food basket
• michaels & associates
• tommy fitgerald