Midland County Emergency Food Pantry Network

Help those in need of food by doing a Reverse Advent Calendar during this Advent season. With a normal advent calendar, you open a door each day to see a picture, take out a chocolate or get some other prize. With a reverse advent calendar, you begin with an empty box. Every day for 24 days, you add one item a day. After 24 days when the box is full, please donate the items to the Midland County Emergency Food Pantry Network. Items may be brought to any of our pantries or to 503 S Saginaw Road.

Below are some suggestions. You can choose to change the foods. You can put in ingredients to make a favorite recipe and then include the recipe. Have fun as you celebrate this Advent Season while helping to put food on the table of those in need.

Day 1:   one can of vegetables
Day 2:   one can of fruit
Day 3:   box of pasta
Day 4:   pasta sauce
Day 5:   pancake mix
Day 6:   pancake syrup
Day 7:   peanut butter
Day 8:   box of macaroni and cheese
Day 9:   raman noodles
Day 10: can of soup
Day 11: can of beef stew
Day 12:  can of tuna or chicken
Day 13:  jelly
Day 14:  cereal
Day 15:  Hamburger or Tuna Helper
Day 16:  canned meals
Day 17: cooking oil
Day 18: granola bars
Day 19: flour or sugar
Day 20: bar of soap
Day 21: toothbrush
Day 22: toothpaste
Day 23: deodorant
Day 24: shampoo

Thank you for your support during the Covid-19 shutdown and during the historic flood.   Much of our support comes from churches. With the shutdown of churches due to Covid-19, our food donations decreased.  Our generous community came forward to help us with this shortfall.  After the flood, many more donated food and money. In addition to keeping our regular programs going, we have been able to provide food to the flood distributions centers as well as providing food to a program at St John’s Lutheran. They are feeding 200 displaced people each day. We are very humbled by the trust you have placed in us to help those in need of food at this time and in the future.

“To know even one life has breathed easier because you lived.  This is to have succeeded”    Ralph Waldo Emerson

The EFPN warehouse was emptied of all food during our recent renovation. We are now in great need to stock the warehouse. Our eight pantries use this donated food to help stock their shelves.  We also use the warehouse donations for stocking the pantries at Windover High School and the Academic and Career Education Academy. We pack boxes for our partnership with Home to Stay from the warehouse items.  As Home to Stay settles their clients into their new housing, they are provided a box of food to start  them in their new home. EFPN is also experiencing an increase of people coming to our pantries.  Please consider collecting food for the warehouse or for any of our pantries.  Below is a listing of pantries and our warehouse. Monetary donations are also welcome. We buy food from the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan at reduced costs. We also use monetary donations to fund our BackPack Buddies Program and our Nutritional Supplement Program.  For the 2019-2020 school year we have 819 children enrolled. This represents a 14% increase over the last school year.  Every donation counts, no matter how large or small. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Donations can be brought to any of our eight pantries or warehouse.  Please call before delivering food & supplies to pantries to make sure someone is there to meet you.

Bullock Creek Outreach Pantry:  Messiah Lutheran Church, 1550 S. Poseyville Rd., 835-7143

Coleman Railway Family Center: 4839 N. Coleman Schools Drive,  465-2079

EFPN Warehouse: 503 S. Saginaw Rd., 486-9393

HELP Pantry:  Memorial Presbyterian Church,1310 Ashman St.,  835-6759

North Midland Family Center Pantry:  2601 E. Shearer Rd. • 689-7770

SAMS Food Pantry: sponsored by St. John’s Episcopal Church at 503 S. Saginaw Rd., 631-2260

Sanford Food Pantry: Sanford United Methodist Church, 2560 N. West River Rd., 687-5353

Wheeler Road Church of Christ Pantry: 1123 E. Wheeler Rd., 835-8559

West Midland Family Center Pantry:  4011 W. Isabella Rd., 832-3256

Any Food, Personal Care and Cleaning Supplies are welcome. Here are some ideas:

• Kid Friendly Foods-Macaroni & Cheese, Peanut Butter & Jelly, Cereal,  Soup, Pasta & Pasta Sauce, Canned Meals, Canned Fruit, Granola Bars, Pancake Mix & Syrup, Hamburger Helper, Tuna
• Baking Items-Flour, Sugar, Baking Powder, Baking Soda
• Beverages-Coffee, Juice
• Personal Care-Toothbrush & Toothpaste, Deodorant, Soap, Shampoo
• Cleaning Supplies: Laundry & Dish Detergent
• Other: Ketchup, Mustard, Salt, Pepper, Cooking Oil, Miracle Whip, Mayonnaise

Recently there was a dedication of a Habitat For Humanity home in Coleman. The EFPN Coleman Pantry representative was there to bring the family a welcoming gift of food. We always feel food makes a house a home.

Two girl scout troops came to the EFPN offices to learn about EFPN.  Girls Scout Troop 50721  brought boxes of girl scout cookies. The girls counted the boxes in and  put them on the shelves in our warehouse. Our pantry coordinators took the boxes from our warehouse for their pantry shelves. The cookies were a special treat for our clients. The girls also counted a food donation that had come in and shelved the items. Girl Scout Troop 50574 brought items for birthday kits.  They had a tour of the SAMS pantry, one of our eight pantries.  They were given the task of selecting a weeks worth of food for a two person family.  We want to thank these troops for supporting EFPN and their willingness to learn about our organization.  We also want to thank their leaders and their parents for teaching them to be concerned for those in need.

One of the programs of the Midland County Emergency Food Pantry Network (EFPN) is the student assistance program which helps low income college students monthly with food. Often these students are single parents returning to school in order to get a better job in the future. Students must provide proof that they are a student. EFPN wants them to focus on getting their education without having to worry about having enough money for food. EFPN had around 28 students per month for the 2013-2014 school year.

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support  EFPN every time you shop at no cost to you. When you shop on AmazonSmile,  you will find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate .5% of the purchase price of eligible AmazonSmile items to EFPN. Tens of millions of products on AmazonSmile are eligible for donations. You will see eligible products marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on their product detail pages.

In order to get donations for EFPN you need to shop at http://smile.amazon.com .   If you do not have an Amazon account you need to create one.  On your first visit to AmazonSmile (after you have logged into your account),  it will have a spotlighted charity but it will give you the option to choose a charity.  Please  search for Midland County Emergency Food Pantry Network.   Amazon  will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make on AmazonSmile will result in a donation to EFPN.

It could be happening to an important person in your life and you may not even know it. Grandmothers choosing between their medication or buying groceries. Grandfathers passing up meals to pay the mortgage. Senior hunger is a serious problem, but often hidden. During the winter months, EFPN provides extra assistance to seniors referred to us by DHS so they don’t have to choose between food and medication or higher utility bills. Often the food is delivered directly to the senior recipients. EFPN also provides gift certificates for nutritional supplements like Ensure for low income elderly clients.

Take the short AARP quiz below to see if you are aware of senior hunger.

https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2016/food-stamps-snap-hunger-seniors.html#quest1

EFPN was awarded the Beacon of Light Award at the conclusion of the Harvest Gathering of the Food Bank Council of Michigan (FBCM) in recognition of our leadership in establishing new programs and our outstanding delivery of food to those in need in Midland County. The food gathering was begun nearly 20 years ago by Midland’s own Bill and Cynthia Schuette in an effort to raise both funds and food to support the 13 regional food banks throughout Michigan. The FBCM is comprised of member regional food banks. The regional food banks, along with their subsidiary distribution organizations and branch warehouses, safely store and provide millions of pounds of surplus vegetables, fruits, and other grocery items to more than 2500 local agencies serving each of the 83 counties in Michigan. These products are made available to the agencies at a low cost (about 10 cents per pound for goods with an average retail of about $2.00 per pound). Types of agencies include food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, hospices, domestic violence shelters, head-start programs, afterschool programs, half-way houses, and group homes for the mentally ill. The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan is the regional food bank used by EFPN This award is a testimony to more than 700 EFPN volunteers who move the food through the pantry, food bank, or backpack buddy program to those in need. Everyone,including our nearly 1000 donors, should be proud of this award!