“Pouches of Love”
Harbor Springs, Michigan
Summer, 2020

Pictured from left to right: Jill Petro, Board member, Friendship Center of Harbor Springs and treasurer, Woman’s Council Cheryl Tallman, owner, Fresh Baby Jennifer Sutkay, coordinator, Friendship Center of Harbor Springs Marcia-Anne Dunbar, member, Woman’s Council

Bay View Woman’s Council is partnering with the Friendship Center of Harbor Springs to bring their frequent attendees “Pouches of Love” for September through May.

The idea began with Marcia-Anne Dunbar. She saw that Jill Petro was setting up a pen-pal program with the Friendship Center of Harbor Springs (FCHS) attendees and Bay View residents, starting with the Woman’s Council members. This resulted in matching about 12 FCHS residents with pen-pals. It is ongoing.

The FCHS is housed within Hillside in Harbor Springs and is 49 subsidized senior housing units within walking distance of downtown Harbor Springs. Hillside is owned by Presbyterian Villages of Michigan, and follows their guidelines, including their COVID-19 protocol, which closed the Center, very possibly through the winter/early spring of 2021. Attendees are missing the camaraderie and activities that the FCHS offered. The Board is finding new ways to deliver music, exercise, arts and crafts, special lunches, seasonal parties etc. to this group.

The “Pouches of Love” project gained traction as Marcia-Anne proposed giving good sized zippered pouches to the Hillside residents, and 11 additional people who are alone and not venturing out.

We now have 66 pouches, with the first distribution slated for the first week of September. The plan is to fill the resident’s pouch either every month or every other month with approximately 10 items.

The FCHS coordinator, Jenn, has supplied us with a list of “wants, needs” for these 66 recipients.

They range from stamps and note cards to night lights, socks with grips on the bottom, magazine subscriptions, arts and crafts projects, CDs, and small food items like pretzels, coffee, cocoa, tea, etc.

Cheryl Tallman (Roger) of Fresh Baby of Petoskey, (a growing nutrition education products business), who contacted our group and donated 66 activity books with gel pens. Our first item for the September pouches.

Marcia-Anne has raised some money to fill part of the pouches and she is finding the first 10 items right now. The second item for the pouch is “Our Daily Bread”, Marcia-Anne has 66.

How can you help? Marcia-Anne has set up a box on the desk in the BV Post office, for notes of encouragement, pen and paper provided. We are also collecting books and magazines, puzzles etc. We have a box for that as well. Marcia-Anne and Jill will be collecting the items getting ready for our first filling of the pouches for September. Future pouch ideas: Refrigerator magnets, notes, pictures from children, new books, more CDs (we have some music lovers), calendars, more stamps, Christmas cards to send, arts and crafts projects for each month, exercise videos.

If you would like to donate items or funds, or have ideas for the pouches, please contact: Marcia-Anne Dunbar: 603.369.2446, mabdunbar@aol.com here now, early September-mid October, 1453 Westbrook Drive, Marysville OH 43040 or Jill Petro: 231.838.3549, jill.petro7@gmail.com In Bay View until mid October, Petoskey October-May, 1331 Atkins Road, Petoskey MI 49770.

 

“Meating” the Need For Our Village, Cass City, Michigan
December, 2019

“Meating” the Need For Our Village was started in 2015 by a group of twelve year-old friends who realized that their local food pantries did not have enough funding to provide high-quality protein to their customers. After realizing this, they used their agriculture background to raise broiler chickens to donate to local food pantries.

To date, “Meating” the Need has had a $60,000 impact on the community through meat, milk, eggs, cheese, vegetables, butter, and nutrition education materials. Recently, Fresh Baby generously donated nutrition education materials to help “Meating” the Need educate children of food pantry clients on the importance of a balanced diet. The materials donated included bags, plates, cups, portion cards, and silverware (for younger children). The Boots and Bling 4-H club assembled the materials into the appropriate bags for distribution. All of these materials are in English, Spanish, and Bilingual so children can choose the bag of materials with the language they are most comfortable with.

“Meating” the Need is very grateful and excited about the opportunity to work with Fresh Baby and we can’t wait to see what the future holds!

A short video highlighting “Meating” the Need for Our Village can be found on NBC

 

Good Neighbors Food Pantry, Boyne City, Michigan
November, 2019

Helping others in the spirit of giving is what the holidays are all about. The Fresh Baby Team joined Good Neighbors Food Pantry to help prepare for Thanksgiving, filling donated Farm Fresh bags with a green bean casserole recipe and ingredients plus other Thanksgiving dinner menu items.

The volunteers that shop and run the pantry do some amazing work and we were proud to participate. The Good Neighbor Food Pantry serves 50-60 families a week. Learn more about The Good Neighbor Food Pantry here: https://tinyurl.com/ycefmtye

After-school Cooking Club
Supporting 3 sessions: October 2018, March 2019, October 2019 – Boyne City Middle School, Boyne City, Michigan

Char-Em ISD CA4K Chopped! Class
June 2019 – Boyne City High School, Boyne City, Michigan

Sheridan Elementary 2nd Grade
December 2019
Petoskey, Michigan

December 2018, Norfolk, Virginia

October 2018, Petoskey, Michigan

  Good Neighbor Food Pantry, Boyne City, Michigan We are proud to support the upcoming 2018, Good Neighbor Food Pantry cooking classes for their clients. The Good Neighbor Food Pantry serves 50-60 families a week and through a grant purchased MyPlate Grocery Bags. To accompany the bags we donated Fresh Baby Fridge Thermometers. Thank you to all of the volunteers at the Good Neighbor Food Pantry for your dedication and hard work, you do it with such compassion and dignity. ????You can learn more about The Good Neighbor Food Pantry here: https://tinyurl.com/ycefmtye ????View our Fresh Baby Fridge Thermometers here: https://tinyurl.com/yd9p95ug ????View our MyPlate Grocery Bags here: https://tinyurl.com/yb8ud3jn

The Manna Food Project Crock-Pot and Blender Cooking Classes We are proud to support the upcoming 2018 Manna Food Project Crock-Pot and Blender Cooking Classes. Manna has partnered with the Health Department of Northwest Michigan, Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities, and MSU Extension conduct eight Crock-Pot and eight Blender cooking classes for 400 pantry clients this year. Participants learn safe knife skills and how to customize a nutritious recipe to their personal tastes. Each client brings home a new Crock-Pot or blender, a three-piece kitchen knife set, vegetable peeler, cutting board, measuring cups and spoons, colander, Fresh Baby Fridge Thermometer, spatula, and fresh ingredients to prepare several easy-to-make recipes. Manna Food Project (Manna), a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, helps feed the hungry in Antrim, Charlevoix, and Emmet Counties. Over 250 core volunteers, seven full-time staff members, and one part-time employee work together to fulfill this mission. Manna is a partner organization of the national Feeding America Food Bank Network. Manna operates a food bank (distribution center), a food rescue program, a weekly food pantry, and the “Food 4 Kids” backpack program. ????You can learn more about The Manna Food Project here: https://tinyurl.com/yd9p95ug ????View our Fresh Baby Fridge Thermometers here: https://tinyurl.com/yd9p95ug ????View our MyPlate Grocery Bags here: https://tinyurl.com/yb8ud3jn

2016-2018 Fresh Baby is excited to be a campaign sponsor of the Partnership for a Healthier America’s Drink Up Initiative that encourages everyone to drink more water. The Drink Up logo is seen on our Fresh Baby 4 Section MyPlates and a portion of the profit is donated to the Partnership for a Healthier America’s Drink Up Initiative. We are dedicated to encouraging American’s to make the shift to healthier drink choices.

2016-2018 Partner Members of Healthy Kids Healthy Michigan

2017 -To embrace the holiday spirit of giving, our team put together Fresh Baby Get Active Kits to donate for Toys for Tots. It was a true joy for us to do this and we hope it brought joy to children in our area for the 2017 holiday season.

2017 & 2018- Fresh Baby is pleased to support the Rotary Club of Petoskey, Michigan and their 2017 and 2018 Diamonds & Denim event, with proceeds benefiting the Petoskey Band Boosters. Fresh Baby collaborated with Vilahbloom.com to offer a luxury diaper bag filled with healthy Fresh Baby products for their event auction.

2017 Donation

2018 Donation

2017 & 2018 -Fresh Baby is thrilled to support the Petoskey’s Connecting Women in Business GO Grant Program for Girl Fundraiser. A donation of Fresh Baby Nutrition Education Products, with a value of over $140.00 was donated to the silent auction, with all proceeds going to the GO Grants. The GO Grants are for young girls in the Petoskey area who have an idea or passion to try something news. The first grants were awarded in 2010 and since that time, 121 girls have received nearly $44,000 in grants.

2016-For several years Cheryl Tallman, founder of Fresh Baby, identifies a local project that leverages the company’s capabilities to improve the health of kids in our community. This year, Fresh Baby chose to support second grade students and teachers by donating fun products and teaching materials that align with the USDA MyPlate Guidelines for healthy eating. The $2,100 product donation will benefit 349-second grade students in the Petoskey and Boyne City School Districts. For the full press release, click here.

Fresh Baby was thrilled to support the Great Lakes Energy employee holiday luncheon and auction with the proceeds benefiting Angel Ambassadors for 2016. It is always a pleasure to support local charities. Fresh Baby’s picnic basket of nutrition education products was valued at over $150.

November 2016 product donation of 4-Section MyPlate’s, MyPlate and Let’s Move Puzzles, adult MyPlate’s, 4 – to 6-oz. Kid’s MyPlate Dairy Cups and more. A total over $100,000 to support the network…where dreams really do come true! The products were used for Project Toy Drop: Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, GA.

2016 – Fresh Baby donated a themed gift basket for the 6th Annual Long Island Hospitality Ball with all proceeds of the auction being donated to the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund.

Fresh Baby participated in the Petoskey Children’s Health Fair, donating our Kid’s Farmer’s Market bags and providing a planting activity for children of all ages to plant peas and start their own garden.