Traverse City Record-Eagle

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June 14, 2012

New thrift store uses grant to renovate

TRAVERSE CITY — An Acme thrift store and food pantry will use a $25,000 grant to renovate a new building.

Acme Christian Thrift Store and Food Pantry recently received the funds from Elk Rapids Rotary. The nonprofit, volunteer-run organization will use the money to prepare its new site on East M-72.

The location, just east of Elk Lake Road, offers about three times the size of its existing spot on U.S. 31, said ACTS co-president Paul Fetter.

"In our current location, we operate both our thrift store and our food pantry, and our food pantry needs have grown so much that space has just become a real problem," Fetter said.

The organization purchased the roughly 7,000-square foot building that had been "divided into a mini-strip mall" and will devote one wing to the food pantry and eventually move in all its operations. Fetter said the goal is to move the pantry into the new space within four to six weeks and have the entire building open by late summer or early fall.

ACTS launched in 2002 to serve needy people in Grand Traverse, Antrim and Kalkaska. Proceeds from the thrift store support the food pantry.

"In the last couple of years, demands for our food has probably doubled," Fetter said.

The organization provided assistance to 440 families in 2003. That number increased to 3,158 families in 2011.

That will require work to take down some walls and renovate the space.

"We need volunteers to help with our remodeling, and we need volunteers on an ongoing basis to work in the food pantry and the thrift store," Fetter said.

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