Businesses, organizations and individuals donate towards the Community Foundation’s missions. Each year, the organization in Delta County coordinates several main initiatives, of which the veterans’ food basket program is one. Others include providing Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and LifeVacs (choking rescue devices) for police cars, senior centers and other locations; a “backpack” program that sends needy schoolchildren home with food for the weekends; and various human needs programs.

“Our community foundation is 100% focused on how to help our community’s residents,” states the Community Foundation on its website. While affiliated with the Community Foundation of the Upper Peninsula, the Delta County branch is its own 501(c)(3) that was founded after one donor bequeathed $350,000 in 1989 “to benefit the community.”

Since then, a number of contributors help the foundation achieve its annual goals. The foundation holds one big “legacy” fundraiser each year, and in that single night, they raise a large portion of the money that makes the backpack program, the veterans baskets and others possible for the next year.

“All the money that we raise with our legacy, 100% of that money goes to our programs,” said Connie Mayville, speaking on behalf of the Community Foundation for Delta County. “There is 0% used for administrative fees.”

Passing out "baskets" of food to veterans around Easter is one of the Community Foundation for Delta County's main charitable missions. (R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press)

Recent major contributors to the foundation — and therefore to the veterans’ Easter baskets — were the John and Melissa Besse Foundation, Greg and Linda Yagodzinski, First Bank, OSF HealthCare / St. Francis Hospital and Medical Group, Thrivent Northbound Group, Captrust, the DTE Foundation, Edward Jones, Kenneth and Patricia Gartland, Randy King, Delta County Law Enforcement Golf Committee and Enbridge. The Delta County Veterans Service Office was a collaborator.

In addition to being a monetary sponsor, Enbridge helped out in a large way by hosting the Easter basket giveaway event on Wednesday and storing the food beforehand. Many Enbridge employees joined the Community Foundation in distributing the tons of food from the location at 27th Avenue North to the queue of vehicles.

Flyers announcing the event had told veterans that they would need to show proof of identification — either a DD214, military ID, county veteran ID, VA healthcare ID or driver’s license with “veteran” on it. The flyer also stated, in all capital letters and large text, that there would be 160 baskets — first come, first served. The operation was scheduled for 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Mayville said that a few extra items were prepared; even if a person was 163rd in line and didn’t receive the whole package, they may have still been able to get a ham or a gift card.

Those first 160 vets got several packages delivered to their vehicle by the volunteers in hi-vis vests outside Enbridge on Wednesday. There was a cardboard box containing canned goods, a carton of juice, UHT milk, uncooked pasta, a bag of granola and other shelf-stable items; a zippered cooler bag containing a ham, five pounds of other meat, frozen vegetables and a five-pound bag of frozen strawberries; a bag of onions; a bag of potatoes; and a Sayklly’s chocolate egg.

With such a variety and quantity, Mayville said, the expectation was that recipients could make many different meals — ham and bean soup, shepherd’s pie and more.

It’s been over 10 years that the local nonprofit has been organizing veteran food basket donations like this. The Community Foundation buys all the food, and fortunately, it’s made possible through not only funding donors but also organizations like Feeding America and generous businesses that offer discounts that help defer the cost.

“We have special pricing that we’ve gotten from Sayklly’s Confectionery and Gifts — Deb and Jim Kirby — on the eggs; and then Feeding America, we work with them as well, because there is no way we could afford to do what we do without getting the pricing that we can get things for,” Mayville explained.

As other organizations supply Christmas baskets to families in need, the Community Foundation of Delta County decided that Easter was a good time for this outreach.

“We just found with the holidays and the extra things like that, that Easter tends to be — it’s the one after the holidays, (there’s) tax season — We thought this is probably where most people would need a little extra help,” Mayville said.