The Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry is a joint venture between our church and our Belmont neighbors, Assumption BVM Catholic Church.  The pantry is open two evenings a week, Tuesday & Thursday, 6-7:30 pm, operated as a satellite pantry of Access of West Michigan, through the North Kent Service Center.  It is an emergency food pantry; please contact the North Kent Service Center at (616) 866-3478 for a referral.  You can also call our church at (616) 784-1111, leave a message, and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

In 2011, the pantry served 603 family units--an almost 13% increase over the number of families served in 2010.  For more than 200 individuals, this was their first visit to our pantry.  These families were made up of 1,985 people, receiving 20, 567 items of food and necessary supplies. 

As the need for food assistance increases, the pantry board keeps looking for other ways to get more food for less money.  We need your help.  We are very grateful for monetary donations to the pantry.  Checks should be made payable to Loaves & Fishes Emergency Food Pantry and sent to Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, 1200 Post Drive NE, Belmont, MI  49306. 

We also participate in CROP Walk each fall, which benefits our own food pantry as well as worldwide programs.  In 2011, the walk was on Sunday, October 2.  Between the 4 local church teams participating in the Belmont-Comstock Park CROP Walk, we raised over $1,700!  Remember that 25% of that money will go to our own Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry.  For 2012, please consider walking with us, or sponsoring a walker.

Your food contributions are accepted gladly!  These items routinely are needed in the pantry:  pasta sauce, cereal, jelly/jam, peanut butter, canned pasta, canned fruit, canned vegetables, coffee, baking items (boxed mixes, sugar, etc.), personal care items.  Please drop off items during Sunday worship services, or during the pantry's regular operating hours.

Between 30 and 40 people volunteer in the pantry in a variety of jobs.  New volunteers are welcome.  If interested, please contact Susan White.  See News for more pantry happenings.  To read an interesting article recently published in the Grand Rapids Press about Hunger Action Week (Sept. 14-20, 2011) and the Pantry Network (of which we are a part), click HERE.