Overview

With a growing need for healthy and affordable food, Community Action House knew that the Holland/Zeeland area needed a place to serve those community members. Replicating a successful Grand Rapids prototype, along with some additional enhancements, the Community Action House Food Club + Opportunity Hub was born.

Community Action House was starting from the ground up and in order to ensure a successful project they needed a partner to come alongside them and guide them through each phase of the process.

The Lakewood Construction team began working with the CAH team by touring multiple possible locations and providing guidance on location, condition, size, programming, and much more. Through the due diligence phase, our team created a concept plan for the existing buildings, which allowed their team to see what programming and growth looked like in each space. This was followed by a concept budget, giving the CAH team the chance to evaluate their options and understand the full scope of purchase, design, and renovation of the building.

Once a building was selected, our team walked them through the entire design process, continuously keeping programming in mind. As our Architecture team designed the building, they looked for opportunities to expand their services and provide value add solutions all while maintaining their budget.

A key part of this project was fundraising. Concept design plans and renderings were provided to assist in sharing the mission and vision of the Food Club + Opportunity Hub to key stakeholders, community members and staff.

In the end, we were able to design and construct this building on time and on budget. The Community Action House Food Club + Opportunity Hub now welcomes almost 1,000 families each month with a goal of 1,200 each month by early 2022.

Overview

Kid’s Food Basket is a West Michigan based non-profit that helps to nourish children living at or near the proverty level by providing evening meals. This allows the children in our community to thrive academically and personally.

With an ever growing need to provide more meals to more kids, Kid’s Food Basket was looking for a permanent space to serve the Ottawa and Allegan area schools. Previously operating out of a local church, they needed to have more space that they could call their own in order to begin to increase the amount of schools served.

With a limited budget, we worked with them to understand their goals and needs so that we could create a space that served both operational and community needs. The renovation of an existing space has now provided them with the critical space needed for additional volunteers, walk-in refrigerators, meeting space, and much more.

Through regular communication and a highly collaborative approach, the Kid’s Food Basket renovation project came in on time and on budget.

Immediately upon arrival, the Kid’s Food Basket team was able to provide evening meals to an additional three schools in our community.