Kenai’s Catching for a Cause Fishing Event Nets $80,000 for Food Bank

• Marathon Petroleum’s inaugural Catching for a Cause fishing event raised $80,000 for the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank.
• The food bank’s executive director said this donation will allow them to purchase enough food for those in need during the last three months of the year.
• Sponsors participated in a two-day fishing trip that included networking and fishing for silver salmon and sockeye salmon on the Big River Lakes and the Kenai River.

Marathon Petroleum’s Kenai refinery in Alaska held a two-day fishing fundraiser that netted more than $80,000 for the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank (KPFB), and leaders from the nonprofit organization say it couldn’t have come at a better time.

“Since the pandemic, KPFB has been pushed to our limits. We went from averaging 900,000 pounds of food distributed annually to over 2.2 million,” said Greg Meyer, Executive Director at KPFB. “We are also feeding two to three times the number of folks in our soup kitchen.”

Meyer’s shared that the increased number of people in need and the increase cost of food and supplies has put a strain on what they are able to do for the community. This donation will allow them to purchase food for the last three months of the year, something they didn’t think was going to be possible.

This donation will allow them to purchase food for the last three months of the year, something they didn’t think was going to be possible.

“Marathon is so important to the work of the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank,” said Meyer. “They enable our neighbors to have turkeys every year during the holidays, and they are a key sponsor of our annual Soup Supper Fundraiser.”

Marathon Petroleum employees and staff from KPFB worked together to make the Catching for a Cause event a success. Industry contractors who work with the refinery signed up as sponsors. Participants spent two days networking and fishing for silver salmon and sockeye salmon. On the first day of the event, guests took a float plane for a fly-out fishing trip at Big River Lakes. Guests fished on the Kenai River the second day.

“The event exceeded all expectations,” said Casey Sullivan, Government Affairs Manager for Marathon Petroleum at the Kenai refinery. “This event was an immediate hit with our guests from many southern states that said this was the most unique and amazing fundraising event they’ve attended.”

Organizers were thrilled that they could build business relationships while supporting the local community in Kenai.

“On the last night of the event, staff from KPFB spoke to the group about how the donation would help the community,” said Jon Kruger, Turnaround Lead at the Kenai refinery, who helped organize the event. “I am proud of our team that put this together, and this event really made me proud to be part of the Kenai refinery community. There are some people in need in our community that will have their lives enriched by the money raised during this event.”