TRAVERSE CITY -- Economic news is going from bad to worse as families struggle to make ends meet.
Angelfood Ministries wants to help -- no questions asked.
The nonprofit, non-denominational organization offers food staples plus eggs, frozen meat and frozen vegetables for about half the cost. One unit of food, an amount that fits in a medium-size box, will feed a family of four for a week or a senior citizen for approximately a month. Families may order as many units as needed per each four-week order cycle.
Anyone can participate regardless of income, employment status or family size. The ministry does participate in the U.S. Food Stamp program.
Once a family discovers Angelfood Ministries, the boxes of food provide an instant budget boost.
"With nine children, we've been able to cut our food bill in half with Angelfood. It really has been a huge blessing," said Kim McLain of Traverse City, who helped bring the organization to Traverse City.
Her church, the Traverse Life Center -- Living Hope Assembly of God, serves between 120 and 170 families every four weeks. The heaviest demand comes in the fall, while the order volume is the lightest in the summer, McLain noted.
"Next month and November will be huge," she said.
After learning of the organization about two and a half years ago, and ordering food with some other families through a site in Gaylord to test it out, McLain was moved to bring Angelfood Ministry to the church. She since has been an avid promoter, including spreading the word to the Northwest Michigan Food Coalition, while other volunteers have distributed flyers to human service agencies.
McLain also helps train other regional site coordinators as they join Angelfood Ministries.
"It's huge, absolutely huge and I absolutely love the fact that everybody qualifies," she said of the organization that began in Georgia in 1994 with 34 families and now serves hundreds of thousands of people in 35 states. "It's so economical, I love this ministry."
Churches host Angelfood Ministries distribution sites with individual families from the community ordering through the church closest to them. However, the ministry is not a religious organization.
The Christian outreach consists of community service by volunteers from each church spearheading Angelfood Ministries. They spread the word, handle orders, unload the food from a semi-truck that comes to Traverse City every four weeks, transport items to their church and coordinate distribution. Each order does receive a salvation tract in the box.
As for the food, it's not seconds, outdated or dented items, but groceries available commercially. Participants order from a menu of options that includes both individual items and cooked, frozen meals.
"It's excellent food," said Myca Belknap, who is the site coordinator for Light of the North Christian Center in Traverse City, which serves 30-35 families. "I've been using the food since July of last year and I have three children all under the age of 10, so they eat a lot."
The region boasts 16 host sites within a 50-mile radius of Traverse City, including three based at churches in town. Saturday morning, volunteers from about nine churches gathered at the Traverse Life Center for distribution.
For two hours, a bevy of volunteers made short shrift of the unloading and distribution process, breaking out orders, loading them into vans and heading back to their individual communities. A large portion of the order remained at the Traverse Life Center, where that afternoon participating families came to collect their groceries.
"Everybody pitches in and helps each other, a great community effort," said Belknap.
Norma Johnson and two other volunteers from the Fresh Start Foursquare Church in Boon participated in Angelfood Ministries for the first time. Already with 35 families ordering 65 units of food, she expects next month's order to grow as word spreads.
"We have orders coming in from Wellston, Kaleva, Brethren, Irons, Mesick and Boon," said the site director for her church. "It's a really depressed area and everybody's looking for a way to cut their food budget."
For information on Angelfood Ministries, call Kim McLain at 929-3673; or visit www.angelfoodministries.com.
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