Greater Lansing Food Bank Volunteer

Cq Cares: Greater Lansing Food Bank

Clarity Quest believes in personal growth and the power of community building. We give each employee an additional day off to pursue a volunteer opportunity of their choice.

I was recently invited to join a group of volunteers on their monthly trip to the Greater Lansing Food Bank. The distribution center in Lansing, MI relies heavily on corporate and individual volunteers to sort through received shipments and donations, package fresh goods, and prepare items for re-distribution to local food pantries, kitchens, and agencies in surrounding communities.

The Greater Lansing Food Bank serves millions of meals each year to families in seven mid-Michigan counties.

In addition to cleaning and sorting non-perishable goods, we had the opportunity to package fresh produce! Our group bundled over 300 bags of Swiss chard provided by Michigan State University for next-day delivery.

Food banks around the country have opportunities in warehouses, gardens, and delivery trucks. If youre interested in volunteering, find a food bank near you.

Greater Lansing Food Bank Mission

The message of Greater Lansing Food Bank is this: “What we do is simple: we feed people.” They feed people by following a mission to “partner to alleviate hunger one meal at a time, to create a future where everyone has access to nourishing food,” while maintaining a vision to, “have a hunger-free community.” It’s the combined power of these three tenets that go into solving a problem like widespread hunger. This food bank is committed to doing all the legwork of coordinating with a variety of food donors and reaching those in need.

Food donationsincluding meat and proteins, fresh produce, dairy, and grains like bread and pastaare collected by the food bank. Then, they distribute the foods to pantries, community gardens and kitchens, shelters, and mobile food pantries that are accessible to the hungry. In 2018, they were able to distribute nearly seven million pounds of food to those who needed it.

About Greater Lansing Food Bank

The Greater Lansing Food Bank is a non-profit organization that provides emergency food to individuals and families in need throughout mid-Michigan in Clare, Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Ingham, Isabella and Shiawassee counties.

What do we do at Greater Lansing Food Bank ?We help feed our neighbors. We make certain that everyone in our community has access to nutritious food, because we can all agree, that no one should ever go hungry in our community.

Where does GLFB get food?The food bank gets food from retailers, the USDA, food producers, purchased goods and from food drive donations.

Who do we serve?Everyone at risk, because hunger does not discriminate. We provide emergency food to families and children and retirees and veterans who have served our country. We serve neighbors who look just like you and me. We help people to perform better at work and school and at home, because food is a basic need. Remember, that no one ever plans to be hungry.

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New Greater Lansing Food Bank Warehouse Provides Space To Double The Impact

LANSING, Mich. On Wednesday, Oct. 13, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., nearly 60 Jackson associates are volunteering at Greater Lansing Food Banks new warehouse.

Volunteers will be packing 2,400 weekend food backpacks for students in need.

The new warehouse has enough space for twice as many volunteers. This allows them to increase their reach and overall impact in the community with food distribution.

The new warehouse is located at the Jackson Volunteer Center, 5600 Food Ct, Bath Township, MI, 48808.

The Greater Lansing Food Bank apprecietes those that volunteer and help feed the community and those who otherwise might struggle to put a meal on the table.

Food insecurity is something they take very seriously and its their mission to address it while providing the means to help.

Opportunities to volunteer are online: .

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Changes To Mobile Distribution

The Greater Lansing Food Bank is also making changes to its mobile food distribution to minimize touch, and promote social distancing, Lantz said.

Food that is normally arranged and hand selected by recipients who choose what they’d like during monthly distribution events is now being boxed up and placed in vehicles. Staff and volunteers will keep a safe distance from people who travel to the events via public transportation while supplying them with food boxes.

Hundreds of people often receive food during the nonprofits mobile distribution events, Lantz said.

Now that Michigan schools have been closed through April 5 she expects those numbers to grow.

“We encourage those in hardship to attend the mobile food distribution during this emergency time, but please do not use this resource if you’re not in real financial distress,” Lantz said.

The next Lansing distribution, open to city residents, will be held from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. March 21 at Tabernacle of David church, located at 2645 W. Holmes Rd.

To donate or volunteer, call the Food Bank Council of Michigan at 485-1202 or visit www.fbcmich.org.

Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ.

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Get Involved At Greater Lansing Food Bank

This process and the success of the food bank is only made possible by its hard-working and caring staff as well as its many donors and volunteers. You can support the cause via several kinds of donations, such as:

• Donating money, which can be used to supplement their food donations.
• Donating food, which can be given directly to their distribution centers.
• Donating time by volunteering to help pick produce, sort food, and more.

You can also help out by hosting a food drive. Have your coworkers, friends, or members of a club youre in bring a canned good or pantry item. Then, donate your haul to Greater Lansing Food Bank.

You can even host a virtual food bank. All you need to do is use their website to create a Virtual Food Drive fundraiser page where friends and loved ones can donate money. Each dollar raised through these virtual food drives can provide three meals to those in need.

Ml& l Cares Program Spotlight: Greater Lansing Food Bank

ML& L Cares Program Spotlight: Greater Lansing Food Bank

About two years ago now Will and I decided to implement the ML& L Cares: Trusted Choice for Charities program. What is this? Our agency will donate $500 each month to a local area non-profit that is referred to us by YOU our clients. Just email mllcares@mllins.com with the name of the charity, a quick description and contact information for the charity.

The name of the charities that are referred to us go before our ML& L Charity committee that consists of a team member from our service, sales and management team and they select one recipient each month. The charities that were not selected stay on our list for the following month. The more times the same charity is referred the more weight it is given before the committee.

This months recipient is: Greater Lansing Food Bank.

The Greater Lansing Food Bank provides food from all of the food groups which includes fresh produce, dairy, meat and proteins, grains, pasta and bread. They serve everyone at risk! They also provide emergency food to children, families, veterans and retirees who are in need as well.

• Host a food drive at home, work or school
• Donate canned and boxed goods
• Monetary donations

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Greater Lansing Food Bank Keeps Residents From Going Hungry

Donations to local food banks tend to be more top of mind during the end-of-year season of giving however, food insecurity doesnt take a holiday. Its a year-round issue for far too many residents that has only been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.

For the past 40 years, the Greater Lansing Food Bank has been one of several geographic food banks throughout Michigan providing that compassionate assistance by serving residents in Ingham, Eaton, Clinton, Isabella, Gratiot, Clare and Shiawassee counties.

We usually have a drop-off in donations and volunteering a few months after the holidays, said Michelle Lantz, CEO of the Greater Lansing Food Bank. So, we have many volunteer opportunities during the summertime that wed love to fill and donations are always welcome, whether they be monetary or food.

The food bank receives millions of pounds of food every year that it distributes to local food pantries, agencies or mobile food distribution services. Much of that food is donated by regional grocery stores like Meijer or Kroger that dont think they can sell the food to customers for various reasons, such as the packaging promotes the Fourth of July holiday that has passed. The food is perfect, but the packaging is not as marketable, so that food gets packed up and sent over to food banks like the Greater Lansing Food Bank to distribute.

About Bilingual Volunteers Needed

The Garden Project is a 30 plus year program of the Greater Lansing Food Bank , supporting a network of nearly 125+ community gardens and 400 home gardens. We provide access to land, how-to education, free seeds and plants, tool lending, a networking hub and more so that all community members can have access to fresh healthy food through gardening opportunities. You can learn more about the GLFB and the Garden Project at www.glfoodbank.org .Some of our community gardens have a diverse group of gardeners and many of them have a limited ability to read or speak English. We are seeking bilingual volunteers to help translate some of our documents into other languages. We are looking for volunteers who speak the following languages-Burmese

Read Also: How Can I Donate Food

Greater Lansing Food Bank

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What We Do

The Greater Lansing Food Bank is a non-profit organization that provides emergency food to individuals and families in need in Ingham, Eaton, Clinton, Shiawassee, Clare, Isabella and Gratiot counties. Food is distributed through an extensive network of food pantries and community kitchens located throughout the region. The Food Bank annually serves tens of thousands of people, many of them seniors and children. Our recipients also include the working poor, those individuals who are employed but dont earn enough to meet housing, health, transportation and food needs.

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