Emmanuel Episcopal Church helps Joy Fellowship Church’s adult food pantry in Wolverine, Michigan, by providing 50 bags of weekly groceries during the summer for elementary children dealing with hunger daily with a total of around 500 bags of groceries.

On one Sunday, a 9-year-old girl asked Kathy Petersen how many bags were needed. Kathy replied 50. The girl replied adamantly, “Well, I think you are going to run out of food. So, I will go home to get more food for the children who are hungry.”

That week Kathy learned middle school students do not receive Manna’s supplemental food packs each Friday as they did in elementary school. She believed the young girl’s message was telling her church to open a middle school youth pantry similar to an adult pantry. The church agreed to ask the middle school if they were willing to do it with Emmanuel’s help.

Kathy Petersen and Joy McBride visited Dana Pinney, and Colleen Pattullo, Petoskey Middle School counselors, and Jon Wilcox, Principal, about the idea of a middle school-based youth pantry. They immediately said, “yes!” So, the work began on how and when to open the first youth pantry. They decided to call it the Northmen Den.

Emmanuel’s Beyond Our Walls committee wrote and received a $4,400 grant from the Episcopal Western Diocese to open the first Northmen Den Youth Pantry in January 2017. The counselors invited eight students on the first day to see if they “liked it.”

By the end of that first day, ten additional students who were told about the “free food” from the first eight came to visit and to take home groceries for the weekend. The following Friday, there were 25.

The Northmen Den Youth Pantry began a committee with the following people: Kathy Petersen, Chairperson; Shirley Burns, Pam & Rusty Carpenter, Kay Farrimond, Dottie & Frank Hawthorne, Joan Holec, David Lamarche, Ernie Mainland, Joy McBride, Ron Rinker, and Sandy Selden to organize the buying, stocking, and volunteers needed each Friday. As a result, at the end of the 2016-2017 school year, 35+ students visited the middle school Northmen Den each Friday.

Left to right: Front Row: Sandy Selden, Dottie Hawthorne, Karel Howse Back Row: Frank Hawthorne, Connie Booth, Joy McBride, Shirley Burns, Teri Manthei

First Food Drive for Middle School Northmen Den, January 2017.

From left to right: Kathy Petersen, Shirley Burns, Sandy Selden, Dottie Hawthorne, Frank Hawthorne, and Joy McBride.

The Northmen Den received its 2nd grant from Women Who Care of $8,200. That grant helped us open our second Northmen Den at Petoskey High School in the fall of 2017. More and more donations began arriving to help us buy the food, toiletries, school supplies, and new clothing. More students were coming too, with around 60 each Friday.

Left to right: Mia Rhudy, Ginny LeGore, and Sue Droste

Northmen Den Volunteers at Petoskey High School. 

Our 3rd Youth Pantry opened in Harbor Springs Middle School and is called Harbor Hut. Carol Smith, of Harbor Springs, is its Coordinator.

Our 4th Youth Pantry opened at Lakeview Academy, the court-appointed Emmet County High School. The youth pantry is called Lakeview Locker. Each Friday, around 120 students were coming to our four youth pantries.

Child Abuse Prevention & Education Council presented to Northmen Den and Kathy Petersen the Champion for Children Award to recognize our service to our community’s children. 

From Left to Right: Darla Smela, Robyn Rakoniewski, and Kathy Petersen

Fletch’s and Harbor Bren Insurance Agencies called us and wanted to sponsor Give A Kid A Chance Food Drive for the youth pantries. Darla Smela and Robyn Rakoniewski were chairpersons for the month-long community event. It raised incredible awareness, food donations, and needed money.

Our First HUNGER HURTS campaign brought awareness and funds about the plight of 1 out of 3 students dealing with HUNGER daily in Petoskey and Harbor Springs.

We surveyed the high school Northmen Den students about having our volunteers tutor them with reading, writing, and math. Seven students said YES, thirteen said Maybe, and three responded No. We realized students trusted our volunteers and wanted more from our program.

Kathy Petersen and volunteers at Tribute Award ceremony. Left to right: Shirley Burns, Joan Holec, Alice Yankoviak, Connie Booth, Kathy Petersen, Sandy Selden, Mary Thompson, Joyce Riordan, Ann Chatterson.

Women’s resource Center awarded Kathy Petersen, Youth Advocate, Fundraiser, and Volunteer Executive Director, its 2019 ADVOCATE AWARD. “Kathy advocates for students, ages 11 to 18, who face the reality of hunger insecurity especially on weekends. She worked with Petoskey Middle School staff to establish a bright, clean and joyful school-based youth pantry (mini-grocery store) staffed with Angels Dressed as Volunteers.

Picture: From left to right: Cheryl Hooley, Connie Booth, and Sue Droste, Northmen Den volunteers packing COVID food bags.

COVID-19 closes schools. Northmen Den and Harbor Hut packs up all remaining food in the Middle and High School Youth Pantries to be given to families struggling to provide food for their children with schools being closed.

Connie Booth, Northmen Den volunteer, setting out COVID-19 Food bags for families to pick up. March 2020.

Picture: From Left to Right: Alice Yankoviak, Nancy Turner, Sue Droste, and Dee Horgan Shopping for Northmen Den & Harbor Hut students online grocery orders.

Northmen Den and Harbor Hut moves To Emmanuel Episcopal Church basement to make students’ weekly online grocery orders.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church realizes Northmen Dens, Harbor Hut, and Lakeview Locker Youth Pantries have been embraced by Petoskey and Harbor Springs communities as a significant ministry and should become its own charity. Kathy Petersen asks Joyce Riordan and Sue Droste to be the first three Board members to submit our Articles of Incorporation as Northmen Den Youth Pantries, Inc. Articles of Incorporation were filed and approved by the State of Michigan on May, 2021.

Northmen Den Youth Pantries, Inc. adds more Board members which includes: Kathy Petersen, President; Joyce Riordan, Secretary, Joy McBride, Corresponding Secretary, David Lamarche, Treasurer, Sue Droste, Emmanuel Episcopal Church designated board member, Christine Carpenter, and Sierra Hilt.

Our official corporate name is: Northmen Den Youth Pantries, Inc. dba as Northmen Den Youth Services to include our SPARK Mentoring and AIM Tutoring programs.

Northmen Den Youth Pantries offers free AIM Tutoring After-School Program at the Carnegie with one-on-one tutoring by professional, certified, paid tutors focusing on academically underperforming students in math, reading, and composition for middle and high school students.

AIM stands for Academical Instructional Mentoring.

Northmen Den Youth Services offers SPARK Mentoring after-school at the Carnegie with a group of 25 diverse students from high to low-risk, high to low achievers. SPARK (Speaking to the Potential, Ability, and Resilience Inside every Kid) educates people about their mental health and resilience and shows them their most genuine and unique potential, regardless of circumstance. Five adult mentors and one certified, trained SPARK Facilitator instructs this 9-week session. 

Petoskey, MI — Northmen Den Youth Pantries (NDYP) adds Concord Academy of Petoskey as its sixth school-based youth pantry to help students eligible for Free Lunch or Reduced Costs. Concord Academy has chosen the name for its pantry as Concord Corner.

Concord Academy is a tuition-free charter school and its building does not have a kitchen. The students must bring their own lunches, and teachers found themselves making sandwiches in their classrooms for students. When NDYP’s board members learned about this, they had to take action. The Concord Corner Sandwich Lunch Brigade is a pilot program that NDYP hopes to expand and provide to even more students.

In March we added five new youth pantries – Char-Em Alternative HS located in Harbor Springs, Alanson MS & HS, and Pellston MS & HS. There are over one thousand Emmet County students in need who are eligible for Free or Reduced Cost Lunch.

Harbor Light, a Christian private school, has been added to help their K-12 grade students in need beginning in September 2022.