November 19, 2025 • 6 mins
Chris Palusky, CEO of Mel Trotter Ministries joins us to discuss the generosity of the people of West Michigan.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I got to tell you from my pure disclosure, full disclosure,
I'm on the board at Meltrotter. What a blessing. And
that's because after a turkey drop, the old CEO said
thank you, and I said, whatever else you need, man,
I'm on board. If you ever don't want to get
(00:21):
on a board, that's something that you shouldn't say.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, you use the word.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
But I am so glad that I get to do.
And what a great question about giving back. Shelby had
a great answer. Volunteer, do you want to give some
money today to help out? It's a great way to
do it. Get involved any way you can. Let's bring
into the conversation Chris Puluski again, who's the CEO at
Meltrotter Ministries. Thanks for joining us again. Brother, You're still
(00:48):
at celebration Centema North.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I'm still here and I have to say I just
heard Shelby talk and I hate to follow Shelby. I mean,
she's so good and she's in the thick of it too.
She knows the story, she knows the people, she knows
just so much. But yep, still here with Shelby.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
When you were being interviewed. One of the things one
of the terms that you used to talk about how
you will minister to those that you minister to at Meltrotter,
you said that your group will be gritty Christians. Frontline
is really a term. You see some stuff down there,
(01:28):
but you make a difference, right, and that's what it's
all about. The folks that come out aren't the same
people that go in. Give us a little on that, Chris.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Sure, well, I'd even take two steps back and say,
we try to keep people from becoming homeless, so you know,
we'd diversey prevention. We've got a shelter when people do
become homeless, and it's got five hundred and fifty beds
and it's got great services. So we've got the clinics,
we've got the mental health care, a lot of different services.
We also have optional chapel, so we invite churches to
(01:58):
come in to be the church and invite our guests
into the chapel. So we look at the physical and
a spiritual wellbeing of our guests and then we try
to help them to launch into the community again with
affordable housing or transitional housing. Workforce development through next steps
of the Skin, which is of our Workforce Development ARM
so we try to look at the whole person at Meltrada.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Can I interrupt there? You said optional when it came
to chapel, and one of the things that a lot
of organizations that are the hands and feet of Jesus
have found is that when you exemplify your faith, it's
a little bit better than demanding your faith. Right, so
(02:38):
there isn't a prayer component before somebody gets something to eat.
And that wasn't necessarily always the case at a lot
of places, right, yes.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Some places required they want their people to go to
chapel and Noltroter we want to encourage books and you know,
we want to invite churches in to actually do chapel services,
Bible studies and encourage our guests to become involved with
them because Meltroter is not a church, but we are
a group of gritty Christians, so people on the front
line serving in some of the most difficult places here
in West Michigan with people who had, let's say, a
(03:11):
speed bump in life or a difficult time or an
indiction issue. But as far as chapel goes, you know,
we want to encourage and in fact we want the
Big Sea Church so different churches coming in and being
the hands and feed of Christ, you know, preaching the
good news. But also we want to make sure that
we're you know, obeying the great commandment, which is love
your neighbor with all your hearts, love the Lord God
(03:32):
with your neighbors yourself. Though, we want to do both
at Meltrotter and not make it compulsory like you have
to do this, but we want we want people to
want to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Chris, when we hear you talk with such passion about
that it creates community, doesn't it. Do you see that
among your guests.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, they do have community and they know each other.
We also try to work with churches so that churches
will almost adopt families, individuals, so that they have an
on road to a community. So when they leave the shelter,
because we don't want to have people stay there, well,
when they leave the shelter, they have a network of
people that can help support them to get on with
(04:11):
the next of the life.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Is that a vehicle backing up that I hear in
the background that's loaded with turkey?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I wish it was in celebration the cinema and they're
getting ready to pop the popcorn. So that's just as good.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We were worried a little while ago about the person
that is the mascot for the event in the big Turkey.
Does everyone know that that's the big Turkey helper and
not something that should be thrown in a cooler. We
just don't need those headlines, Chris, I.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Will note that right down. In fact, I'm writing it down.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Hey, Chris. One of the things that we asked you
about this morning, and Mark alluded to this, Mark Meyer,
is how this thing started and how it's grown. Talk
about when people make it donation, they drop off a
frozen turkey, where that turkey goes, and what it's involved with.
Because you guys have that big Turkey dinner downtown, which
is part of the process, but there's so much more
(05:11):
than that we do.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So the turkeys go to help seed folks at the
mission for a turkey dinner, we have a Thanksgiving meal,
we have a Christmas meal, but also we're partnering with
Feeding America West Michigan, and what they do is they
take those turkeys and they distribute them to food pantries
throughout West Michigan to make sure that families and needs
(05:34):
are able to access well a turkey for a turkey
dinner during this holiday season. So it goes all throughout
West Michigan and it also helps out our guests don
the shelter.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
When we take a little commercial break here and get
to bottom of the hour news. When we come back,
we will talk to can of Stelle again, who is
the Feeding America West Michigan President and CEO. So I
think we can give a little update about where we
stand with the numbers. And when I look at Meltrotter
(06:04):
dot org and the Turkey Drop events, turkeydrop dot org
will get you there too, as well as wood Radio
dot com. It appears as if we have officially gone
over two thousand turkeys and are let's do this. We
got a long way to go, and we're getting to
(06:25):
that part of the day when folks unfortunately have to
work and they might not be paying attention. So Chris,
we're going to talk to you again before noon. Thank you.
We will see you at celebration a little later on
to Chris Puluski's the CEO at Meltrotter. God bless you,
Thank you,
I got to tell you from my pure disclosure, full disclosure,
I'm on the board at Meltrotter. What a blessing. And
that's because after a turkey drop, the old CEO said
thank you, and I said, whatever else you need, man,
I'm on board. If you ever don't want to get
(00:21):
on a board, that's something that you shouldn't say.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Hey, you use the word.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
But I am so glad that I get to do.
And what a great question about giving back. Shelby had
a great answer. Volunteer, do you want to give some
money today to help out? It's a great way to
do it. Get involved any way you can. Let's bring
into the conversation Chris Puluski again, who's the CEO at
Meltrotter Ministries. Thanks for joining us again. Brother, You're still
(00:48):
at celebration Centema North.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
I'm still here and I have to say I just
heard Shelby talk and I hate to follow Shelby. I mean,
she's so good and she's in the thick of it too.
She knows the story, she knows the people, she knows
just so much. But yep, still here with Shelby.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
When you were being interviewed. One of the things one
of the terms that you used to talk about how
you will minister to those that you minister to at Meltrotter,
you said that your group will be gritty Christians. Frontline
is really a term. You see some stuff down there,
(01:28):
but you make a difference, right, and that's what it's
all about. The folks that come out aren't the same
people that go in. Give us a little on that, Chris.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Sure, well, I'd even take two steps back and say,
we try to keep people from becoming homeless, so you know,
we'd diversey prevention. We've got a shelter when people do
become homeless, and it's got five hundred and fifty beds
and it's got great services. So we've got the clinics,
we've got the mental health care, a lot of different services.
We also have optional chapel, so we invite churches to
(01:58):
come in to be the church and invite our guests
into the chapel. So we look at the physical and
a spiritual wellbeing of our guests and then we try
to help them to launch into the community again with
affordable housing or transitional housing. Workforce development through next steps
of the Skin, which is of our Workforce Development ARM
so we try to look at the whole person at Meltrada.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Can I interrupt there? You said optional when it came
to chapel, and one of the things that a lot
of organizations that are the hands and feet of Jesus
have found is that when you exemplify your faith, it's
a little bit better than demanding your faith. Right, so
(02:38):
there isn't a prayer component before somebody gets something to eat.
And that wasn't necessarily always the case at a lot
of places, right, yes.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Some places required they want their people to go to
chapel and Noltroter we want to encourage books and you know,
we want to invite churches in to actually do chapel services,
Bible studies and encourage our guests to become involved with
them because Meltroter is not a church, but we are
a group of gritty Christians, so people on the front
line serving in some of the most difficult places here
in West Michigan with people who had, let's say, a
(03:11):
speed bump in life or a difficult time or an
indiction issue. But as far as chapel goes, you know,
we want to encourage and in fact we want the
Big Sea Church so different churches coming in and being
the hands and feed of Christ, you know, preaching the
good news. But also we want to make sure that
we're you know, obeying the great commandment, which is love
your neighbor with all your hearts, love the Lord God
(03:32):
with your neighbors yourself. Though, we want to do both
at Meltrotter and not make it compulsory like you have
to do this, but we want we want people to
want to do that.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Chris, when we hear you talk with such passion about
that it creates community, doesn't it. Do you see that
among your guests.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Yeah, they do have community and they know each other.
We also try to work with churches so that churches
will almost adopt families, individuals, so that they have an
on road to a community. So when they leave the shelter,
because we don't want to have people stay there, well,
when they leave the shelter, they have a network of
people that can help support them to get on with
(04:11):
the next of the life.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Is that a vehicle backing up that I hear in
the background that's loaded with turkey?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I wish it was in celebration the cinema and they're
getting ready to pop the popcorn. So that's just as good.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
We were worried a little while ago about the person
that is the mascot for the event in the big Turkey.
Does everyone know that that's the big Turkey helper and
not something that should be thrown in a cooler. We
just don't need those headlines, Chris, I.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Will note that right down. In fact, I'm writing it down.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Hey, Chris. One of the things that we asked you
about this morning, and Mark alluded to this, Mark Meyer,
is how this thing started and how it's grown. Talk
about when people make it donation, they drop off a
frozen turkey, where that turkey goes, and what it's involved with.
Because you guys have that big Turkey dinner downtown, which
is part of the process, but there's so much more
(05:11):
than that we do.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
So the turkeys go to help seed folks at the
mission for a turkey dinner, we have a Thanksgiving meal,
we have a Christmas meal, but also we're partnering with
Feeding America West Michigan, and what they do is they
take those turkeys and they distribute them to food pantries
throughout West Michigan to make sure that families and needs
(05:34):
are able to access well a turkey for a turkey
dinner during this holiday season. So it goes all throughout
West Michigan and it also helps out our guests don
the shelter.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
When we take a little commercial break here and get
to bottom of the hour news. When we come back,
we will talk to can of Stelle again, who is
the Feeding America West Michigan President and CEO. So I
think we can give a little update about where we
stand with the numbers. And when I look at Meltrotter
(06:04):
dot org and the Turkey Drop events, turkeydrop dot org
will get you there too, as well as wood Radio
dot com. It appears as if we have officially gone
over two thousand turkeys and are let's do this. We
got a long way to go, and we're getting to
(06:25):
that part of the day when folks unfortunately have to
work and they might not be paying attention. So Chris,
we're going to talk to you again before noon. Thank you.
We will see you at celebration a little later on
to Chris Puluski's the CEO at Meltrotter. God bless you,
Thank you,
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