HASLETT - Located inside Haslett Community Church, the Haslett Food Bank has been operating for more than 20 years, providing local families with food and personal hygiene products. The food bank helps families throughout the Haslett area obtain the groceries they need without adding to the bills they have.

Mary Nelson has been a volunteer at the food bank since it’s beginnings in the late ‘80’s, and as the volume of donations has increased, so has the amount of families in need.

“It was just an occasional maybe once or twice a month, somebody would contact the church and need food," said Nelson. "Then when I volunteered to be more available, the numbers started growing.”

And those numbers continued to grow, as the food bank now has more than 100 clients who use their service. Many of the clients are disabled or elderly, and some are families with children in the Haslett School District, many of which are working

“It’s a lot of working families actually," said Haslett Food Bank Coordinator Nick Gulliver. "It’s usually a single parent family, but it could be a two parent family, they’re both working, one could be working.”

The food bank collects mainly boxed and canned goods, but also has certain perishable goods such as meat. However with a current shortage of ground beef, the food bank is relying on other donations, especially those from the Meridian Township Deer Harvest.

“The venison has really helped our food pantry," said Gulliver. "We've had a ground beef shortage here and the venison has really covered up for our lack of ground beef.”

The deer harvest is helping those in Haslett at just the right time, with the winter and holiday season coming soon, the Food Bank is preparing for their annual Christmas program.

“The Christmas program has grown so large, that doing 100 families at Christmas we give them a complete meal, a turkey or a ham, and all the trimmings, and then maybe a weeks worth of extra groceries while the kids are home on vacation," said Nelson.

The food bank also has two families to help out during thanksgiving, but is relying on many donations and volunteers to make the Christmas program happen once again.