Empty Plate
How did you hear about us?
HISTORY
During the recession of 1981, many families in the greater Lansing area were without resources due to layoffs. They often had to make difficult choices between paying rent, buying medicine, paying for utilities, and purchasing food. To help ensure that no one went hungry during that time, community leaders David Hollister, Camille Abood, Patrick Babcock, and William Long founded what was called the Greater Lansing Food Alliance, which later became the Greater Lansing Food Bank (GLFB).
Each month, local organizations and businesses held food drives. The food was stored in an unused Lansing Schools building, sorted by volunteers, and distributed by Ingham County through an informal network of 8 area churches. Today, the GLFB helps collect, purchase, and distribute food through 22 Ingham County pantries, as well as 36 human resource agencies, including community kitchens, shelters, and other food pantries.
Realizing that the pantry system, alone, could not meet the community’s food needs, the GLFB, in 1982, established another program called The Garden Project. Its purpose was to provide garden plots to people in underserved areas so they can grow, harvest, prepare, and preserve their own vegetables and increase the local supply of fresh, nutritious food.
In 1992, the GLFB recognized yet another unmet need—preventing prepared food from unnecessarily going to waste. Thus, it created Food Movers, a program in which volunteers “rescue” food from licensed kitchens, local grocery stores, and bakeries and deliver it to shelters, community kitchens, senior centers, and others in need.
Although the GLFB was originally established as a temporary measure, food needs continue to exist and grow. Therefore, the GLFB—through its pantries, related agencies, gardens, and rescue efforts—continues to work hard to feed the hungry. It is able to carry out its mission, in large part, because of the efforts of many outstanding volunteers; the assistance of its partner organizations, and the extraordinary generosity of this community.
