GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — There have been plenty of holiday parties across West Michigan over the last few weeks, but perhaps none with as funny of a name as the “Whatchamacallit Holiday Networking Gig” held at Mammoth Distilling on December 18th.
The event was inspired by an emotional speech given back in October by Pablo Garcia, the executive director of the SECOM Resource Center, about the state of hunger in West Michigan. Whatchamacallit ended up raising $6,100 for SECOM, which can stretch those dollars even further thanks to its partnerships with local wholesalers.
The move comes at a time when SECOM is seeing need for food rise in the community. Since July, the pantry has served four times as many people as it normally would in that amount of time. That includes people who are visiting a food pantry for the first time…