Midland County Emergency Food Pantry Network

We are anticipating that there may be more demand for food during the Coronavirus Emergency.  School children are home and people may experience loss of jobs or reduced hours for working or higher medical bills. We have changed some of our practices to keep people safe as well as continue to provide food to those in need.  All EFPN pantries and warehouse can still receive food and monetary donations.

PANTRIES:

 All  u-pick pantries will go to non u-pick. Volunteers will pack boxes of food and deliver them to cars.  We will also waive signatures and be using best hand washing  and disinfecting practices within the pantries. At this time all pantries will remain in operation.

MOBILE FOOD PANTRIES:

The clients  will remain in their cars for registration and distribution.  We will forgo signatures and all hand washing including hand sanitizer will be used by volunteers. 

BACKPACK:

A  backpack of food for three weekends will be available for current recipients of the BackPack Program.  Parents will need to go to their school to pick up the food.

SENIOR DELIVERY:

This program will operate as usual.  Volunteers and recipients will maintain minimal contact.

Goal

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$80,000.00

$41,000.00

$

Our goal this year is $80,000 in Food and Money

No one should have to worry about how they will afford to feed themselves or their family. Many people in our community are faced with this concern every day.  Hunger does not discriminate. Hunger does not care about gender, age, race or religion. Hunger can affect people who are unemployed or working full-time.  EFPN will be conducting its annual “Stop Hunger Challenge” during the months of March and April.  Food and money collected during this time will count towards this challenge.  Our goal for this campaign is $80,000 in food and money.  Donated food, personal care and cleaning items are valued at $1.00 per item .  We are once again very fortunate to have an anonymous donor  offer a match for all donations.  EFPN will receive a check from this donor in proportion to the total funds and food, personal care and cleaning items received during the challenge period.  The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan is offering a 10% credit on our account for all money donated to us.  In 2019, we spent $139,861 with the Food Bank to purchase food for our regular pantry program and BackPack Buddies and Mobile Pantry programs. Donations toward any of our programs or specific pantries will qualify for the campaign.  Monetary donations may be sent to EFPN, P.O. Box 2521, Midland, MI 48641-2521. Food donations may be donated to any of our pantries or warehouse. Many of our supporting churches will be collecting. You can continue to bring your donations to your church collection site. Check our website, www.midlandcountyefpn.org, to watch our progress towards this goal or to donate online. Winston Churchill said, “You make a living by what you do, buy you make a life by what you give” Thank you for your past support of EFPN.  We appreciate your continued support  so we can all help those in need of food in our community. 

What happens when you combine the principals of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math), unopened cans and boxes of food and  creative and dedicated teachers and students who want to help their community?  You have an event called Canstruction.  The Midland County Emergency Food Pantry Network (EFPN), Midland Schools and the Midland Mall are joining together to host a Canstruction event.  Teams of students will use their STEAM skills to construct sculptures of food. 

• Build date is Friday, February 21 at the Midland Mall starting at 8:00 AM.
• Technical Awards will be announced at 2:30 PM on February 21 at center area in front of former Yonkers store. 
• Structures on display February 21 thru 12:00 PM Saturday, February 29. 
• Vote for your favorite structure from February 21 till mall closes on Friday, February 28.

Tickets are $1.00 and can be purchased at a table located in the Mall Food Court

• People ‘s Choice Award will be announced on February 29 at 12:00 PM at center area in front of former Yonkers store. 

You are invited to come and watch as students defy logic and gravity as they build structures out of cans and boxes of food. All food used in these structures will come back to EFPN to help feed your neighbors in need.   This event is part competition, part food drive, and a whole lot of fun.  We are grateful to many local businesses who have helped to fund the food that the students will be using.  Come to the Midland Mall and enjoy the structures, vote for your favorite and support the efforts of the students as they show how we can tackle hunger and make a difference one CAN at a time.

Canstruction FAQs

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 quiz below to see if you are aware of senior hunger. This quiz is sponsored by Feeding America. There is sometime a problem with getting to the answer page depending on the browser you are using. You can get to the answer page by submitting the answers twice or you can click on the second link below to see the answers.

Senior Hunger

Senior Hunger Quiz Answers

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!