Brewery Vivant, Crooked Goose join forces to fight hunger

What happens when a proudly local pub and a Grand Rapids brewery get together? They find a creative way to fight hunger in West Michigan.

On May 1, Crooked Goose will host a Brewery Vivant tap takeover featuring six of Vivant’s Belgian-style ales, and from 4-9 p.m., Crooked Goose will donate 10 percent of their profits to Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank. Brewery Vivant will match that amount.

Though this will be the restaurant and brewery’s first direct collaboration, both are active supporters of Feeding America West Michigan, having donated a combined total of $2,800 in the last year.

“Crooked Goose has a very strong commitment to providing our community with locally sourced ingredients,” said marketing specialist Lindsay C. Stone, citing her restaurant’s emphasis on Michigan-made beer, wine and liquor.

For Kris Spaulding, co-owner of Brewery Vivant, “made-in-Michigan” is more than just a faddy marketing slogan. Speaking in terms that would be familiar to wine lovers, Spaulding emphasized the centrality of Lake Michigan water in providing the distinctive terroir of Grand Rapids beers.

“We boil it, but we don’t have to do anything additional to treat it, which is pretty amazing,” she said. (In fact, Vivant is so proud of West Michigan’s water that they’ve partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council on a campaign arguing for the continued importance of the Clean Water Act.)

Because Crooked Goose and Brewery Vivant are very much products of what Spaulding calls the entrepreneurial and creative culture of West Michigan, they feel compelled to address the problem of hunger in the region. In Kent County alone, more than 84,000 people are food insecure.

“Being in the restaurant business, we are surrounded by food on a daily basis,” said Stone. “It really hits home with us to think that one out of every five children in Michigan wonder where their next meal will come from.”

“As a restaurant that feeds people fortunate enough to eat at a place like ours, we also don’t want to forget about the rest of the population that doesn’t have that ability,” Spaulding echoed.

“If we can get food on the table for the less fortunate, that makes complete sense,” she said. “It’s just a good fit.”

This event is part of Feeding America West Michigan's Million Meal March, a campaign to distribute an additional million meals to families in need. For more ways to march against hunger, visit millionmealmarch.org.