SpartanNash ‘Helping Hands’ pack meals for disaster relief

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It was quite the operation inside DeVos Place Convention Center in downtown Grand Rapids Thursday morning as 700 volunteers took part in SpartanNash’s ninth annual Helping Hands Day.

“We have a core value called ‘We Serve’ so when we say ‘Hey, we’re going to do something like this,’ everyone’s hand goes in the air,” SpartanNash CEO Tony Sarsam said.

He said the company is committed to helping people following a disaster, emergency or severe weather event.

“We’re a food solutions company and one of those things you need very early on is you need water, food, hygiene products — and we have those things,” he said.

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This year, instead of having smaller groups go out into the community to do charitable work, Helping Hands volunteers came together under one roof.

“We found this organization called Convoy of Hope we partnered with here today that gets boots on the ground at those disasters who can very quickly get in to help and we decided, hey, we can do one big event and get everybody together in one place and create the meal solutions for folks that need that the most when they have that disaster,” Sarsam explained.

Volunteers packed nearly 15,000 boxes with meals to feed a family of four for one week. SpartanNash and its partners donated about 500,000 meals and 5,000 toiletry kits, a total retail value of approximately $1 million, that were loaded into semis to be deployed by Convoy of Hope to families in need following a disaster.

“It was a lot of coordination with the Convoy of Hope, with our vendor partners who support us as well, so we had a lot of people who pitched in to help with this but it was a big effort and it’s been great,” Sarsam said. “We want to serve. We want to come up with solutions for communities when they need us the most and so it really feeds our soul to do that.”

One of the people who attended to lend a helping hand was Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss.

“I think it’s one of the many things that I love about our city is that we have corporations that step up and give back to the community in significant ways and this is great example of that,” Bliss told News 8.

She added that SpartanNash was the first company to call and offer help when thousands were under a dayslong boil water advisory in Grand Rapids due to a water main break in March.

“They’ve been really strong partners in our community for a long time,” the mayor said.

Over the last few years, there has been an even greater need for disaster relief with an increase in disaster frequency, severity and cost. According to the Census Bureau, an estimated 2.5 million people were forced from their homes in the U.S. by weather-related disasters in 2023.

“Sadly, we’re seeing more severe weather events all over the country, including right here in Michigan,” Bliss said. “We have to be very prepared. We have a great team, we practice all the time on how we respond as units of government with our community partners, how we respond when there’s a crisis, and then after the initial crisis, we need to make sure that we’re identifying the needs and then meeting those needs and we often rely on companies and individuals to help us with that.”

She added that it’s important to recognize people who step up in those times of need.

“This is the best part of my job is to be able to connect with people and thank them but listen to them and help them feel like they’re part of our entire community.”

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