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The Impact of Charitable Union on Our Community

The Impact of Charitable Union on Our Community

Charitable Union has played a vital role in the development of Battle Creek since 1887.

  • In 1887, a fundraising dance sponsored by Charitable Union raised $232.75 — more than $7,600 in today’s dollars — to support neighbors in need.

  • The organization began by providing food, shelter, and basic necessities.

  • Recognizing the need for medical aftercare, Charitable Union opened two small hospitals: the Chadwick House and the Hodskins House, both of which quickly reached capacity.

  • These efforts laid the foundation for Nichols Memorial Hospital, established in 1890.

  • Charitable Union also helped establish a nursing school, continuing its operation until 1948.

While its role evolved over time, Charitable Union never lost sight of its mission: meeting basic needs in our community. If a child missed school due to lack of clothing, Charitable Union provided an outfit.

Through relocations, partnerships, and decades of service, Charitable Union has remained committed to helping thousands of local individuals and families thrive.

Our Purpose, Our Work and Our Values

Looking ahead, we hope for a day when Charitable Union is no longer needed — when every need in Battle Creek is fully met.

Until then, we remain committed to serving individuals and families facing difficult circumstances. Our promise to this community — and to you — is that we will continue our mission and our work, providing help that brings hope.

Our Purpose
To contribute to human dignity.

Our Work
Provide clothing, bedding and small household items at no charge
and connect people to resources in the community.

Our Values
Honor and respect the people we serve.
Collaborate and partner with stakeholders.
Respect diversity within our community.
Be an exemplary organization.
Use resources responsibly.

Join Our Team

We're Hiring click here to see what positions are open

Our staff is dedicated to serving our community, with a primary focus on those who rely on our programs and services.

For general inquiries, please contact info@charitableunion.org.

MANAGEMENT
Teresa Allen, Chief Executive Officer
269-964-7234 (ext 104)
Email: Teresa@CharitableUnion.org

Nicole Frohlich, Operations Manager/Volunteers
269-964-7234 (ext 108)
Email: Nicole@CharitableUnion.org

Lindsey Blowers, Fund Development Associate
269-964-7234 (ext 106)
Email: Lindsey@CharitableUnion.org

GIFT SHOP
Echo Bignell, Lead Sewer
Noah Thawnghmung, Lead Clerk
Sylvia Pratley, Support Sewer
 

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT
Ruth Heyn, Technology and Administrative Support
 

CLIENT SERVICES
Lorri Holder, Client Services Check-Out
Dan Byrd, Client Services Check-Out
Samona Lucas, Donor Hall
Aaliyah Wing, Donor Hall
Amanda Starkweather, Donor Hall
Bill Tassie, Donor Hall
Cyndi Sutton, Client Services Reception 
 

Our board reflects the diversity of our community and is passionate about Charitable Union’s mission. Members work to ensure the organization’s long-term sustainability and that funds raised directly support those in need.

(Left to Right) Peter Phelps (Chairperson), Teresa Allen (CEO), Diane Ramirez (Treasurer), Mike Mankerian (Past-Member), and Patrice Lewis (Vice-Chairperson). Not pictured: Chuck Saulsberry, Laura Hosler, Mark Todd, and Brandon Martinovich.

 

Peter Phelps, Chairperson
Retired Bronson Battle Creek Health

Patrice Lewis, Vice-Chairperson
YMCA

Diane Ramirez, Treasurer
Retired Chemical Bank

Laura Hosler, Secretary
GreenStreet Marketing

Brandon Martinovich, Vice-Chairperson
Robert Half International

Chuck Saulsberry, Director
Calhoun County

Mark Todd, Director
Retired Upjohn

Shoppers' Council

Established in 2006, the Shoppers’ Council is an alliance of staff and clients that gives clients a voice and a way to share suggestions.

The Council helps clients navigate complex systems, addresses special needs, and provides feedback to improve Charitable Union’s services. Over the years, the Council has achieved milestones such as administering a shopper survey that led to ending color-coded shopping days, and volunteering in various community events.

If you would like to join the Shoppers’ Council, please contact us at 964-7234.

Annual Report

2025 Annual Report

Our Impact This Year

  • 37,213

  • Households Served in 2025

    13,071

  • Volunteer Hours in 2025

    30,828

  • Backdoor Donations in 2025

    57,250 bags/boxes

  • United Way
    United Way
  • Consumers Energy
    Consumers Energy
  • Goodwill Industries
    Goodwill Industries
  • Prairie Farms
    Prairie Farms
© 2026 Charitable Union
Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

  1. What Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
  2. Personal Information You Choose to Provide We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys. If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
  3. Website Use Information Similar to other websites, our site may utilize a standard technology called "cookies" (see explanation below, "What Are Cookies?") and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
  4. How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us? Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing service and support and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under our traditional standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of all personal information provided by our users. You may at any time to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers.
  5. What Are Cookies? Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user's web browser on the user's hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that website by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user's transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from web page to web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
  6. How Do We Use Information Collected From Cookies? We use website browser software tools such as cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users' browsing activities, in order to constantly improve our website and better serve our users. This information assists us to design and arrange our web pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our website to better meet the needs of our users and prospective users. Cookies help us collect important business and technical statistics. The information in the cookies lets us trace the paths followed by users to our website as they move from one page to another. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit our website and evaluate our website's visitor capacity. We do not use these technologies to capture your individual email address or any personally identifying information about you.
  7. Notice of New Services and Changes Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.
  8. How Do We Secure Information Transmissions? When you send confidential personal information to us on our website, a secure server software which we have licensed encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website. Other email that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
  9. How Do We Protect Your Information? Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. Employee Access, Training and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  10. How Can You Access and Correct Your Information? You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.
  11. Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.
  12. What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information? We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.
  13. Permission to Use of Materials The right to download and store or output the materials in our website is granted for the user's personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.
Terms & Conditions

Terms & Conditions

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.

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