The St. John’s UCC Food Pantry distributes free produce, meat, dairy, baked goods and nonperishable food items to local families and individuals from 1:00-3:00 p.m. on the 3rd Tuesday of every month.
Thanks to our dedicated volunteers, financial support from individual donors, the Greater Lansing Food Bank and other community partners, the St. John's UCC Food Pantry provides groceries once a month to 60 to 100 local households - whoever shows up - which equates to over 200 people per month. Each household is given three meals for seven days, per person.
To be eligible to receive food from the Pantry you must:
Be in need of food assistance
Not have been served by another food pantry in the past 7 days
We serve a free community breakfast in our fellowship hall every Saturday morning from 8:00 to 9:00 am, along with sack lunches to go.
The menu is different every week depending on who's cooking, but it's always filling and delicious and served with kindness.
We are extremely grateful for the help of various local organizations and families who come to St. John's UCC on Saturday mornings to cook for and serve our guests. If your organization would like to sign up to serve breakfast, please contact our church office at (989) 725-7072 or at church@stjohnsUCCowosso.org.
Everyone is welcome to join us for breakfast, with no prerequisites or sign-in required.
Volunteer your time - we could really use your help!
Donate money with which we will purchase food for the Food Pantry
Donate toiletry items or cleaning supplies (things our pantry clients need but we can't get from the Food Bank)
Food Pantry volunteer roles include using your car, truck or station wagon to pick up food deliveries; packing boxes for pantry clients; organizing donated food items; checking pantry clients in on distribution day; and helping them carry their items. For more information, contact Andy at pantry@stjohnsUCCowosso.org.
The St. John's UCC Food Pantry has been distributing food in our community for over 20 years, since 2000.
The Food Pantry remained open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, but we changed how we operate to help keep everyone safe. Realizing that many of those changes provided an overall better experience for our guests, so since then we have maintained those new practices. Instead of coming into the building and waiting for their food, our guests now remain in their cars. Our volunteers come up to each guest's parked car and complete the guest's paperwork for them in the parking lot. Our volunteers then bring out each family’s food and load it directly into their car for them.
We also periodically set up a table or tent in the parking lot with additional non-food items to give away, and we host an annual Christmas gift room for food pantry guests on the day of our December Food Pantry distribution.
