LAKE ANN -- Stacks of baby food. Boxes of diapers. Rows of bottles and formula, shampoo, lotion and wipes. Piles of garments and blankets.
The baby pantry at Advent Lutheran Church in Lake Ann was stocked and ready for business. All that was missing was the shoppers.
"Usually we have a few people by now," Keith Johnson said for the second time, as he surveyed the village parking lot outside the church window.
The pantry opened in September after months of planning. Half a year later it has served just eight families.
"We kind of assumed it would go up exponentially, but we haven't gotten more than five or six people on a Saturday," said Johnson, a member of the outreach committee that oversees the project.
Open from 9 a.m. to noon the second Saturday of every month, the pantry offers free baby food and supplies to single mothers and other families in need in northern Benzie, southeast Leelanau and west Grand Traverse counties. Previously the nearest pantries were in Traverse City, Beulah and Suttons Bay.
"This particular area didn't have a baby pantry to serve it, so there was a need," said Rich Andersen of Empire, one of 230 members of the young congregation. "This church is more than Sunday morning worship," he added.
One of several church outreach projects, including quarterly food drives and a Christmas angel tree program, the pantry is financed by fund drives and a renewable $3,000 grant from the Trapp Memorial Fund administered by the Northwest Michigan Evangelical Lutheran Church in America synod. Church members also can donate to the cause by dropping off items in bins beneath the coat rack. And recently the community kicked in with proceeds from its LA Snow Pine Fest.
Organized in 2007, the church meets in a renovated fire garage between the Almira Township Hall and the Almira Township Library across from the village park. Because of a shortage of space, it limits its pantry offerings to smaller items.
"We just don't have enough room for baby carriages or toys, but looking ahead to the new church we'll have some storage," said Andersen, referring to the church's plan for a 5,500-square-foot building off Cedar Run Road.
For now, members of the outreach committee take turns setting up and staffing the pantry, then packing it up and hauling it home.
"The neat part is doing what we're doing in a small space," said the Rev. Justin Grimm, who came to the area from Minneapolis/St. Paul to answer his first call.
Johnson said the church sees its baby pantry as a supplement to others and as a complement to the Lake Ann United Methodist Church Food Pantry and Clothes Closet. Unlike others around the region, it doesn't have income or residency requirements.
"As Christians we're called to serve, and if someone comes through our doors we like to help," said Abby Cudney. "It's another way we can serve the community we're in."
For Chrissy Bint, a single mom with three children ranging in age from 10 months to 4 years, the pantry has been a lifesaver.
"I used to go to the one in Beulah, but it was getting too far away," said Bint, 28, who lives just down the street from the church. "It helps me a lot. It means a lot to have it closer."
Bint, who is unemployed but looking for work, said she relies on the pantry for extra diapers and soy formula for her son, Gabriel. The disposable diapers she buys cost $35 for 200.
"If I run out or don't have the money to get some, I use (the pantry)," she said.
Other regular shoppers include a woman who arrives by Benzie Bus and a couple who, their daughter has told pantry organizers, are "really hurting right now."
Now the church is hoping more families in need will discover the free resource.
"There's a need; it's just getting the word out," Andersen said.
Dave Yarnell, executive director of the Benzie County Community Chest, agrees that the need in the community has never been higher.
"A year ago we had requests for $50,000," said Yarnell, whose organization raises funds and distributes support grants to local service agencies. "This year we had requests for $114,000."
And while the pantry, which advertises mostly by word of mouth and through fliers posted around the area, has been struggling for recognition, other, more established baby pantries in the three-county area are booming -- especially with the recent economic downturn.
"Before all of this occurred, we were already busy," said Lilia Alfonseca, an organizer of the Leelanau Baby Pantry held at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Suttons Bay. "But now it's pretty much doubled."
The Benzie County Baby Pantry at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Beulah draws between 40 and 45 families a session, said director Marilou Schlotterbeck. The pantry offers everything "from soup to nuts," including infant car seats.
"With the current economy it has changed a lot," Schlotterbeck said. "It's bringing more people in, even people who are not low-income. And with car seats, people can't afford them anymore. They just don't have the money."
For more information about the Advent Lutheran Church Baby Pantry, call 275-8031.
