Gazette file photo Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly volunteer Sierra Juntti serves Easter dinner to Shirley Clark at the Church of the Resurrection in Hancock in this 2024 Gazette file photo.

HANCOCK — Easter is this Sunday and Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly is ramping up its annual Easter holiday tradition. The charity provides meals to older adults, aged 60 and older, on multiple occasions including major holidays such as Easter.

LBFE Executive Director Carol Korpela, says she is grateful for the community helping out through volunteerism or donations. “The community really came together,” she said. “They helped provide the food and the volunteers.”

According to Korpela, Little Brothers has all of the food it needs in order to make their Easter program a success. Friday saw all of the food for the celebration delivered to nine different locations throughout the Copper Country. Little Brothers serves around 1000 older adults on Easter Sunday — it’s an undertaking Korpela does not take lightly.

“We’re in five counties and multiple sites, so [Friday] is actually the day that volunteers are delivering the supplies and food to those dine-in sites,” she said. “We have to be ahead of schedule to make sure it all comes together on Easter Sunday.”

The organization serves Baraga, Houghton, Keweenaw, Marquette, and Ontonagon counties. On the Little Brothers Upper Michigan website, it is listed Little Brothers serves 1,622 older adults, have over 1,214 volunteers who have contributed 13,277 hours and have received over $117,000 in non-financial contributions.

LBFE has six dine-in sites and three delivery sites this year for older adults to enjoy an Easter meal. The organization also does home deliveries from some of those sites to older adults who cannot make it to the dine-in locations. Korpela says the meals will be delivered by volunteers after they are all prepared by Sunday.

“We do provide home delivery to those older adults,” she said. “Volunteers go to the meal sites, pick up some meals and deliver them to the homes of the older adults on Easter Sunday.”

To help out with Easter Sunday celebrations or any other holiday events, visit lbfemichigan.org/volunteer or call (906) 482-6944 for more information.