JACKSON – A year and a half into the COVID-19 pandemic, one Jackson church is staying vigilant with its free food distribution program.
On a cool Tuesday, Oct. 12 afternoon, a half-dozen volunteers joined the Rev. Gerry Greuling, pastor of East Jackson Church of the Nazarene as he watched pallets of produce, milk and frozen chicken fillets rolled out of a truck and into his church’s garage.
A few hundred feet away, a makeshift queue of cars, trucks and SUVs sat, trunks ajar, as about 150 families waited to receive the incoming groceries.
It’s a scene that’s played out twice a month since the start of the pandemic.
The second Tuesday of each month, the church receives a truckload of produce, dairy and frozen food from South Michigan Food Bank. Starting just before 2 p.m., a long line of cars travels past the volunteers as they load boxes, gallon jugs and more into trunks, trailers and truck beds.
The menu on Tuesday included fresh carrots, celery, apples and tomatoes, alongside gallon jugs of milk and a five-pound bag of frozen chicken fillets.
On the fourth Saturday of each month, the church partners with Compassionate Ministries of Jackson County to provide a wider variety of food from 10 a.m. to noon, with Greuling himself making home deliveries. At times, he said the line for food has stretched up and down the gravel lot and onto Ann Arbor Road.
The church has operated a food ministry program for years on Saturday mornings, Greuling said, but ramped up services during the pandemic.
What started as 20 to 30 families - mainly church congregants - quickly grew to 300 families a month, many of whom come from outside the church community. Greuling said he gets the word out mostly through Facebook, word-of-mouth and lawn signs. He’s seen a steady need in the community for this service, he said.
Minutes before opening the food bank on Tuesday, Greuling went car to car to photograph three-inch-by-five-inch notecards with each family’s name, number of family members and their ages. After each event, he sits down to transcribe the contents of each notecard and send them along to SMFB.
As he walked up to a truck driven by Ken Klapperich of Grass Lake, the teary-eyed retiree reached out to shake the pastor’s hand. With what little money he had for gas, he’d come to pick food up for his extended family.
“I try to pass on what your generosity to me means because it helps other people,” Klapperich said. “But I’m sure things are going to get worse before they get better.”
Greuling nodded, shaking hands and thanking Klapperich for paying it forward.
“I hope it doesn’t - that’s the way I’ve been praying,” Greuling said.
East Jackson Church of the Nazarene, 5549 Ann Arbor Road, operates its food bank the second Tuesday of each month, starting at 2 p.m., and the fourth Saturday of each month at 10 a.m. Visitors can stop by the church’s office anytime to pick up index cards for their family or others.
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