Ingham County Sees Surge in Food Pantry Families

Unemployment across the Lansing area rose from June to July, and local food banks are feeling it.

"We are averaging 125 to 130 new families per month who have never had to come for food before, and some of them were (previously) donors," said Mary Meirndorf, director of the Ingham County Food Bank, which manages 20 pantries in the Lansing, East Lansing, Haslett and Okemos areas.

The Ingham County Food Bank only recently started to track first timers, so there's no way of knowing how that compares with a year ago, Meirndorf said.

Okemos Community Church is one of the pantries that works with the Ingham County Food Bank.

www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20100827/NEWS01/8270325/Continuing-poor-economy-keeping-Lansing-area-food-banks-busy