Northern Initiatives Helps Snackwerks Grow and Hire

BATTLE CREEK, MICH. – The sweet smells of cinnamon and apples waft through a northside Battle Creek neighborhood where a former grocery store has been reinvented into Snackwerks, a contract manufacturer devoted to quality food and quality jobs.

And jobs there are. Northern Initiatives, a Community Development Financial Institution offering business loans and services throughout Michigan, is using $800,000 in federal funding to help Snackwerks build a fourth production line and create 27 jobs. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Community Services, made the announcement as part of their Community Economic Development (CED) program.

Jeff Grogg, who founded Snackwerks in 2016, had a goal to hire 10% of the workforce from the adjacent low- to moderate-income neighborhood, but blew past that and is close to 30% now. “It’s a job that’s both stable and flexible,” Grogg said. “There’s no manufacturing on this side of town,” and no reliable way to get to the other side of town unless you own a car, he said.

At Snackwerks, employees work a 40-hour week (overtime is available if they want it), Monday through Friday, staffing three shifts. They get paid holidays, paid time off, a 401(k), and, beginning in 2022 now that they have enough employees, health insurance.

Northern Initiatives has also had a presence in Battle Creek since 2016. Working in partnership with other community stakeholders, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) launched the Battle Creek Small Business Loan Fund and brought Northern Initiatives on board as a partner to run lending operations for the $10 million fund. In five years, Northern Initiatives has made 38 loans, totaling close to $4 million.

It was one of those loans, in 2020, that helped Snackwerks enjoy the surge in demand for healthy snack foods during the pandemic. At the beginning of 2020, Snackwerks had 55 employees; early in the pandemic that number dropped to 24. Northern Initiatives helped with working capital so Snackwerks could add labor shifts to its three production lines, bringing employment to 80.

This is the second year in a row Northern Initiatives has been awarded a grant from the U.S. Office of Community Services. Last year’s loan to the PM Power Group, in Ontonagon, Mich., is helping create or retain at least 35 jobs at the company’s recycling and recovery facility; 75% of those jobs will be filled by low-income individuals. “We’re helping build a robust local economy in Ontonagon County that will have a sustainable impact,” said Elissa Sangalli, President of Northern Initiatives. “And now we’re helping revitalize a wonderful Battle Creek neighborhood.” (Pictured are Jeff Grogg, Snackwerks Founder, and Gunther Brinkman, General Manager, with the mural adorning the side of Snackwerks.)

“Watching Snackwerks grow and shift and grow again has been empowering,” said Sangalli. “The commitment to quality jobs has always been front and center, but they are devoted to quality in everything they do, so it’s not a surprise. We were pleased to work with them to apply for and obtain this $800,000 federal grant to help them expand. Their site in the former grocery store is a great fit with the neighborhood, especially with that wonderful mural facing the street.” (Color the Creek, a grassroots public art and placemaking project in Battle Creek, chose Snackwerks for one of its largest murals in the city.)

Snackwerks is partnering with MichiganWorks to help find the new employees and, even though that hiring process hasn’t started, Snackwerks embraced one of the programs early. A success coach holds regular office hours, onsite at Snackwerks and free to employees, to help with financial planning and connections to resources, including for transportation, housing, and child care. The coaching helps with job retention, but also helps with employees’ financial resiliency, Grogg said, and the employee feedback has been great.

Snackwerks also encourages its workers to set goals and loves to promote from within, including one general laborer who worked on the second shift after he relocated from the Middle East as a refugee. He’s now a supervisor.

Part of the reason a fourth line is needed is for allergen-free production, which currently has to move from line to line, with extensive cleaning in between.

Northern Initiatives, a Community Development Financial Institution, delivers loans and business services to small business owners and entrepreneurs who create jobs and enable the people and communities of Northern Michigan to thrive. Learn more at northerninitiatives.com. Since 1992, NI has provided 1,483 loans totaling over $85M to starting and growing small businesses across Michigan. .

The production of this news release was support by Grant #90EE1285 from ACF. Its content is solely the responsibility of Northern Initiatives and does not necessarily represent the official views of ACF.