Consumers Energy partners in local effort to support restaurants and families
In a community-wide effort that included financial contributions from Consumers Energy and its employees as well as community members, local residents in Jackson, Michigan, received 43,000 meals last winter, and restaurants earned much-needed revenue.
It all started with a story shared about the “Everyone Eats” program in Brattleboro, Vermont, and Consumers’ commitment to duplicate the program locally.
“Once we committed ourselves to the idea, we reached out to the city of Jackson, plus the community foundation and other nonprofit and business leaders, to see if they could work with us,” Brian Wheeler, media relations manager, told American Gas.
The Our Town program raised more than $500,000, with Consumers Energy contributing $220,000 and the rest coming from community members, Wheeler said. The utility’s contribution came on the heels of a pre-holiday contribution of $500,000 in matching dollars for gift cards being sold for local businesses in more than 55 Michigan communities.
Consumers Energy worked with community organizations to promote the 10-week program, and volunteers distributed prepackaged dinners purchased from some 20 Jackson-area restaurants three times a week. The restaurants, which were required to source at least half of the food locally, were paid $10 per meal from the money that was raised, with the balance going toward meal boxes and other program costs, Wheeler said.
Since Consumers Energy provides natural gas and electricity to the Jackson community, most of the meal recipients likely were Consumers Energy customers, Wheeler said.
