While it is the season of giving thanks, many restaurants across the area give back throughout the year, supporting local schools, charities and endeavors such as Food Rescue. The Ticker spoke with three restaurant group owners about the ways in which they support the community.

“People come in and give us their hard work’s pay for burgers and custard. We try to give back in each community,” says Brad Johnson, who owns two Culver’s in Traverse City, one in Cadillac and one in Gaylord.

“The biggest thing we do is once a year have a classic car show,” Johnson continues. The cruise nights attract upwards of 70 classic cars. Culver’s raises money through a variety of means at the events, including registrations for the cars, a percentage of the restaurant’s profits and donations from participants.

In Traverse City, the program benefits the local Disabled American Veterans, while in Cadillac the money is donated to breast cancer research and prevention through Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital.

In Gaylord, Johnson says there aren’t as many car enthusiasts, so instead the company held a month-long benefit in October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and donated $1 for every Concrete Mixer sold to the Otsego Memorial Hospital Mammography Assistance Program. Concrete Mixers are frozen custard blended with a candy ingredient, and are one of the restaurant’s most popular items. Johnson hoped to sell at least 3,000, which would have been 500 more than the previous year.

Instead, Culver’s sold nearly 4,200. “We had a really good response,” Johnson says.

Mission Management operates a number of restaurants in Traverse City, including North Peak, Blue Tractor, Mission Table and Jolly Pumpkin. “Jon (partner Jon Carlson) and I were born and raised in Traverse City and always felt it was important to give back to our community,” says co-owner Greg Lobdell.

They do so in numerous ways, including donating meals for the homeless, contributing a scholarship donation to the Great Lakes Culinary Institute, backing the March of Dimes and supporting the Father Fred Foundation through donations from beer sales.

The most visible statement has been the company’s fundraiser for St. Baldrick’s. St. Baldrick’s Foundation was founded to raise funds for research to combat childhood cancer. Participants shave their heads as a sign of solidarity with children who lose their hair due to chemotherapy, and collect money from friends and family. The event has grown from one in 2000 to over 1,300 nationwide in 2013.

Locally, the St. Baldrick’s fundraiser has grown to such an extent (7 Monks Taproom challenged North Peak and raised over $30,000) that Lobdell and Carlson are happy to pass it on as they develop another event. Lobdell says the group raised over $300,000 over the years. “We love that other groups have jumped on board. It’s flourishing so well we can take our energy to something else.”

Lobdell says Mission Management is now in talks with Munson Medical Center about fundraising. “We just started brainstorming. We want to keep the money in Traverse City,” he says.

Mike and Denise Busley have been giving back since opening the first Grand Traverse Pie Company shop in 1996. Today the couple owns seven pie shops, including a second Traverse City location, which they dubbed the “Grand Traverse Pie Community.” Its profits are all donated to the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation, which funds endeavors to improve the lives of children.

Denise says it was also only natural for the company to focus on hunger, donating $60,000 to various causes throughout the state dedicated to feeding the hungry. That includes “Hunger-Free Summer,” a campaign to make sure that children who utilize free breakfasts and lunches during the school year don’t go hungry over the summer break. 

The Busleys teamed up with numerous food purveyors across the state. “It felt really good to plug into that,” Denise says.

Denise is also an advocate for child sex abuse prevention. She’s served on the board for the Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC), with the “Kids Make and Bake Pie” tent at the National Cherry Festival serving as both a fundraiser and platform for the CAC.

“If you look at a business that’s community-driven, which we are, it only makes sense,” says Denise. “It feels great, too.”