Last Saturday, 52 churches united to feed less-fortunate families in the Greater Lansing area. With help from the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, volunteers delivered more than 2,700 boxes of food.
Journey Life Church, Riverview Church and 50 other churches in the Lansing area raised $27,014 for the food drop. Director of the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, David Karr, said the churches raised more money than needed. The remaining money will be saved for the next food drive.
This is the third annual Greater Lansing Food Drop, and was held at Holt Senior High School. Last year, the food was distributed in Michigan State’s auditorium, and at Eastern High School’s field house in Lansing the year before. Tim English co-leader hopes to use Holt Senior High School again in the upcoming years.
Vince Parris (grey) along with other volunteers load boxes into cars.
Each car received five maps and five boxes to deliver, said Vince Parris, a volunteer. He helped load the cars with food from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Holt High School was sectioned off to four stations which held about 700 boxes each. Parris’ area was one of the busiest. Along with three other volunteers, he loaded 200 boxes together.
The Pastor of Barefoot Christian Church in Lansing, Noah Filipiak, was one participant in the food drop. He was excited about this event because “the churches are uniting and setting aside their differences to do something they all agree with..”
The Greater Lansing Food Drop is organized by English and Jerry Jennings. They have been in charge of the entire project for the last two years. English was part of the leadership team when the project began in 2009.
Stephanie Butler, coordinator of the food drive in 2009 said the project was a challenge by Lansing’s Mayor, Virg Bernero. In a meeting of the pastors in the Greater Lansing area, he focused on hope, food and housing. He spoke about the need of the communities and what could they do to meet the need. One pastor thought of the idea, and that is how the project began.
Lindsay, Tim, Rhonda and Megan English
“It’s a beautiful opportunity for the people of God in the Greater Lansing area to do something real and tangible for people who live across the street or down the street. You don’t know who’s in need,” Tim English said.
Butler said the task usually takes six to eight months to plan, and it was done in two and a half the first year. The dedicated churches and residents have made the project successful for three years.
Photos by Ashley Moton, Holt Journal staff writer