HOLLAND, Mich. — On Friday evening January 20, a fire broke out in the pantry at Gateway Mission on River Road. Within minutes the sprinklers were activated and put out the fire, said interim executive director Jay Riemersma. However, the water caused widespread damage.
“With water you have tremendous damage,” Riemersma said during an interview with Fox 17 on Monday. “It’s unfortunate because at this time of year we just got through our calendar year-end food drive from all the elementary school kids that have donated to the Mission. So, our pantry was completely full. So, all of these paper products and paper goods were destroyed.”
Riemersma said the health department told them that anything in paper boxes had to be thrown out. By Monday afternoon, the Mission’s back loading dock and dumpster was filled with dozens of unopened boxes.
“So, macaroni and cheese, elbow macaroni, rice, anything in a cardboard box and some of our plastic goods that were housed in cardboard,” was thrown away, Riemersma said. “And then of course because it was a fire you had soot and smoke damage.
Fire at @gateway_mission — which feeds 100+ men/women/children at their 2 shelters — caused “tremendous” water damage in the pantry. They had to toss a lot of food out. But the community has been helping them refill the shelves w/ donations. // @FOX17 pic.twitter.com/TOgPdwhmWW
— Lauren Edwards (@LaurenEdwardsTV) January 23, 2023
Riemersma said they’re currently assessing all the damage but the fire department told him that the total cost may reach $50,000.
“It sets us back tens of thousands of dollars. As you can imagine, our pantry is full. We serve over 100 guests each and every night. And we’re a little bit different in the fact that we serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner to men here in our facility and to a women and children’s facility as well,” Riemersma said. “So, hundreds of people each and every day are counting on us being able to serve them.”
Immediately after the fire, the Mission posted about it on social media. As soon as they did, donations started pouring in, he said. Within two days they received 10 gaylords, or 5-foot by 5-foot cardboard boxes of food and other items. They received so much that it covered half of what they lost.
“We’re just praising the Lord that it could’ve been a lot worse. But it wasn’t,” Riemersma said. “Everybody was safe. We just have tremendous damage.”
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