News Photo by Darby Hinkley Farm Bureau representatives Bobby Barrigar, Angie Hague, and Dave Tolan present a $5,000 check on Friday to Sean McDaniels, residential tech supervisor at Sunrise Centre, and Madeleine McConnell, chief executive officer of Sunrise Centre. The funds will be used toward the center’s food pantry at their new facility.

ALPENA — Farm Bureau representatives presented a $5,000 check on Friday to Sunrise Centre on Friday to sponsor the food pantry at the center’s upcoming new facility.

Bobby Barrigar, president of the Farm Bureau Agent Charitable Fund, joined Angie Hague, county administrative manager for Huron Shores County Farm Bureau, and Dave Tolan, county president of Huron Shores County Farm Bureau, in presenting the check to Sunrise Centre Chief Executive Officer Madeleine McConnell, and Sunrise Centre Residential Tech Supervisor Sean McDaniels.

“We are so excited and so grateful to receive this support from Huron Shores Farm Bureau and the Agent Charitable Fund to sponsor the pantry space in our new facility,” McConnell said. “We are looking to raise an additional $1 million to support the $6.8 million construction of our new facility, which we are going to break ground on in about a month. Every donation helps, and this is just a beautiful way for community partners to show support for what we’re doing here.”

Barrigar explained how the funding came together.

“This grant with the Agent Charitable Fund is a unique one,” Barrigar said. “Because this is what we call our ‘double up’ grant. It’s an opportunity for us to work with our member side, which is Michigan Farm Bureau. Huron Shores is a branch of Michigan Farm Bureau that handles all our memberships. This gives us an opportunity for the Agent Charitable Fund and our County Farm Bureaus to come together for one cause, and it gives what we call the family of companies to work together.”

He noted that the Agent Charitable Fund is a pool of funding donated by agents across the state.

“When the Agent Charitable Fund was formed, we really didn’t know what we wanted our mission to be. We just wanted to do something that impacted Michigan as a whole,” Barrigar said. “So ending hunger in Michigan became our mission, focused mostly on kids, but we fill food pantries. If we can sponsor a food pantry in a new facility, that brings us one step closer to our goal of ending hunger in Michigan.”

“We’re trying to be more active in the community, with the farmers’ side of it,” Tolan said. “This helps us get our image out in the public, plus it helps out a good cause. We’re trying to make more of an impact. Plus, it also helps the agriculture side, because we’re growing the food, so why not help put the food where it needs to be.”

McConnell said she hopes the donation will inspire others to support Sunrise Centre, a recovery center with the mission: “To guide those suffering from a substance use disorder from active addiction to quality recovery that encompasses social, emotional, physical and spiritual wellbeing.”

“We do have many other rooms available for sponsorship,” McConnell said. “If this inspires anybody to partner with us, they can always give us a call.”

Reach McConnell at 989-356-6649.