The story of the River St. Joe farmstead brewery in Buchanan, MI, begins with its namesake, the third-longest river in Michigan, which follows a zigzagged route across the southern part of the state into northern Indiana.
“The path of least resistance is not always the most direct or simplest,” their website says. “Nothing wrong with that from our perspective.”
So, when the governor announced the stay‐at‐home order due to COVID‐19 right before River St. Joe’s planned grand opening on March 21, they shifted to carry-out service only. Plus, they quickly hatched a plan to distribute food to community members in need.
“It dawned on us that the pandemic continues to affect every aspect of this extremely diverse and multifaceted [food] industry,” says Lisa Shanahan, head of house at River St. Joe. “There were so many products that would no longer have anywhere to go.”
Shanahan and Carly Bielecki, executive chef, offered River St. Joe as the middleman, gathering discounted food from local suppliers and packaging bags for distribution.
In their first giveaway on April 22, River St. Joe distributed food provided by seven suppliers — Bit of Swiss, Cherry Capital Foods, Fortune Fish & Gourmet, Nelson’s Herbs, Sysco, Union Coffee House and Verdant Hollow Farms. The donations included ten whole turkeys, 100 pounds of chicken, 40 pounds of pork shoulder, 25 gallons of milk, ten dozen eggs, ten bars of soap and 12 tubs of oats. Each package included recipe ideas from the River St. Joe kitchen.
“That potential for [recovering] wasted food lined up with what we saw as a need for people who had been laid off or who were in trouble,” says Brian Dougherty, CEO at River St. Joe.
After spreading the word on the River St. Joe Facebook page, as well as through community papers, everything was gone in an hour.
“It was just jammed in an unsettling sort of way,” Dougherty says of the crowd that came to pick up food. “The amount of people came as a bit of a surprise to everyone.”
River St. Joe grows hops on five acres of its 180‐acre farm, Flatwater Farms, and uses them to brew six types of beer, available for take‐out growler fills only.
“The timing was tragically bad,” Dougherty says. “The very nature of the experience is to come to the farm, to sit on the farm and look at the hops that make the beer and the vegetables in the garden.”
The certified organic farm supports the brewery’s commitment to sustainability. Food and drinks are made from ingredients grown on the farm or produced just down the road.
The menu has already changed several times since opening because it is tied to what is seasonally available. Currently it features a Banh Mi brown bag meal, three seasonal sandwiches (Henhouse, Meadow and Beekeeper), picnic salads with dips (smoked trout dip and a cream cheese and spicy blueberry compote).
They could never have predicted a global pandemic, says Dougherty, especially right as they were ready to open after four years of planning and building, but the novelty of their operation has piqued community interest.
“We’ve been unbelievably successful,” Shanahan says. “But a business is only as good as the community that it’s in.”
For now, River St. Joe has pivoted to focus on giving back to the community for the time being.
“Part of our mission has always been to be a good community member and neighbor,” Dougherty says.
Dougherty, Bielecki, Shanahan and others at River St. Joe are busy planning for another round of food giveaways for the Buchanan community in the coming weeks.
“None of us realized how needed this actually was,” Shanahan says. “Next time we need to have more products. It needs to be bigger.”
Read more Beyond the Plate local food hero stories. Learn more about our partners, Niman Ranch at nimanranch.com.
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