Call it hospitable hops. Students at one northern Michigan school district have had their lunch debt wiped away, thanks to the help of a local brewery.
Some lager-fueled philanthropy means students in Suttons Bay School District are starting the new year with a clean slate. A $2,700 check was written by The Mitten Brewing Company to cover lunch debt left over from last year.
Chris Andrus (and-riss) is co-owner of the brewery. He said resort-town poverty isn’t as uncommon as people might think.
“It’s kind of a strange predicament. They’re in really affluent areas, but as you peel back the onion a little bit you learn that not everyone up there, in either of those locations, is affluent. There’s poverty in every school district.”
Andrus said the idea for the donation was originally conceived by one of the brewery’s bartenders, who had been a substitute teacher in Suttons Bay and became aware of the lunch debt problem.