Lansing, Michigan – June 10, 2010 – At an early afternoon ceremony at the front entrance to the Kellogg Center on the Michigan State University campus, representatives of the Greater Lansing Food Bank introduced its new Food Movers vehicle to the community and publicly thanked two community organizations for their funding support that lead to the purchase of the new vehicle. Terry Link, Executive Director, welcomed the attendees and explained that the Greater Lansing Food Bank Food Movers program “rescues” more than 650,000 pounds of perfectly good food each year that has been prepared in restaurants, cafeterias, dormitories, and other locations, or is perishable; that has not been served, and that otherwise would be thrown away. It then delivers this food to human service agencies, community kitchens, subsidized housing, shelters and other programs where there are food needs. The new vehicle will replace a 1994 vehicle which has been providing these services for Ingham, Eaton and Clinton county communities.

Mike Busch, incoming Board Chair for the organization thanked representatives from the Capital Region Community Foundation, the Rotary Club of Lansing and the Rotary Club of Lansing Foundation for their financial support which made the purchase of this vehicle possible. “These grants will help the Greater Lansing Food Bank feed thousands of our friends and neighbors for years to come with healthy prepared and otherwise perishable food in a most efficient fashion. For all those that will benefit from this program, thank you for caring and thank you for enabling us to feed those in need” stated Busch.

The Greater Lansing Food Bank was created in 1981 to meet a need in the Greater Lansing community that became critical during the major recession of the early 1980’s. Now, nearly 30 years later, the Greater Lansing Food Bank is still working to address this need that will not go away…the need to feed those less fortunate. Through a network of pantries, related agencies and partners, the Food Movers Program and the Garden Project, the organization is working to provide access to good and plentiful food for all. In 2009, nearly 3,000,000 pounds of food was provided to hungry people in Ingham, Eaton and Clinton counties, at a value of more than $3 million. .  The Greater Lansing Food Bank is the area’s leading source of food for those who might otherwise go hungry in the three counties.