The Gift of a New Refrigerator Box

Sometimes you need all hands on deck to make sure things are smooth-sailing!

We have been so blessed with increased food supply thanks to our partners from local farms and the Federal Government. The food comes fresh, which is great! But that also means we need more refrigerated space to store all the extra food coming in. Although the Buist Community Center was kind enough to lend us their refrigerator a few times this summer, we had been looking into getting our own cooler or reefer truck.

Our trucker driver, Ron, happened to mention our predicament to Ken, the CEO of Feeding America West Michigan. As luck would have it, Feeding America would be getting a new refrigerator box and they offered to donate their old one to us. What an incredible gift!

Now that we had acquired a cooling system, we needed help preparing our campus for installation. We had some volunteers come and help move the plants in our garden to make way for the cement, and helped dismantle the dumpster enclosure so that we could use the materials later to rebuild it. The cement pad came from our friends at Kent Companies, and they even took a week of their time to help prep and pour the new cement. It was another incredible donation.

The refrigerator’s delivery was handled by Pace Trailer and Buist Electric graciously donated their time to do all the electrical wiring necessary for the cooler. The refrigerator is 27’ long and 7’ wide. It’s capable of holding 16 pallets of food, increasing our available storage space over threefold!

This project could not have come together so seamlessly without the support of our partners and volunteers. We have felt so blessed these past months. Sometimes, God answers our prayers before we even ask them.

Make yourself a part of this wonderful community! Find more volunteer opportunities here and explore our programs here.