Impact100 Traverse City Announces 2025 Grant Recipients

Food Rescue, the Women’s Resource Center, and the Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities have been named the recipients of Impact100 Traverse City’s 2025 grant awards. The organization announced the news at its annual meeting, and presented each winning organization with a check for $116,000. The three grantees were chosen from a group of five semifinalists that also included the Bay Community Theatre in Suttons Bay and Paddle Antrim.

Details of the grants and how the money will be spent are below:

Food Rescue: “Despite recovering and redistributing an amazing 2.2 million pounds of food annually, the program has been limited by a lack of cold storage,” an Impact100 press release states. Food Rescue will use the $116,000 to purchase a new walk-in cooler, which will reportedly more than double its current capacity. “This means less waste and a consistent supply of healthy, fresh produce for families throughout the region,” the release adds.

Women’s Resource Center: WRC will use the Impact grant to “create safe, independent studio apartments within its transitional home, specifically designed for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.” The new space “will help foster emotional and financial security, expand housing capacity, and build a stronger path to independence for those who need it most,” the press release notes.

Groundwork Center: The Impact money will go toward advancing Groundwork’s Esperance Community Teaching Kitchen, located inside the Commongrounds building in Traverse City. Per the Impact press release, Groundwork is striving to make Esperance into “a regional broadcast hub,” and will use the money “to livestream, record, and distribute critical ‘food-as-medicine’ education across Northwest Lower Michigan.”