LAAN’s food pantry provides unique service

Food pantries across our region provide valuable help to people in need of groceries to feed themselves and their families.

But add to the equation someone in the family dealing with HIV or AIDS and suddenly nutritional needs go beyond the general to the very specific.

Since the late 1980s, the Lansing Area AIDS Network’s Food Pantry Program has been serving clients in a personal and vital way.

At a typical food pantry, clients are given pre-selected grocery items. But at LAAN’s pantry, clients can adjust their grocery list based on their nutritional needs.

Side effects from medications means careful attention to diets. Going in to a regular food pantry, clients often can’t ask for grocery adjustments to help with that attention — whether because of pantry rules or clients’ concern for their own privacy.

“People are encouraged to tell us what they can and can’t tolerate,” said Nancy English, auxiliary services coordinator for LAAN. “We accommodate everyone as best as we can.”

Kids with disabilities thrive on horseback

A classroom aide pushed what looked like a cross between a stroller and a wheelchair into the riding stable. In it sat a tiny, pink-clad girl who looked half asleep, eyes gazing at nothing.

After a few seconds, the little girl realized where she was and sprung to life, jumping out of the chair and running over to Janet Gross, program manager at the Beekman Therapeutic Riding Stables.

“Good morning, Faith! Are you ready to ride?” Gross asked.

Faith bounced up and down enthusiastically as Gross located a riding helmet small enough to fit the girl’s head.

Once she was suited up, volunteers helped Faith get situated on Flash, one of Beekman’s three ponies ridden by the littlest kids. She grabbed hold of the reins and said, “Horse!”

And just like that, Faith was in her element.

Helping kids find their voices through photography

“I wish my mother would write to me saying, ‘I love you, Joslin. I miss you.When you come see me again, I’m going to give you the largest kiss in the world.’ I wish she would write, ‘I miss you’ as many times as you can fit into a letter because we are not a happy family right now.”

Joslin was just 9 years old when she wrote that letter to her incarcerated mother.

On any given day, more than 1.5 million children in the U.S. have a parent serving a sentence in a state or federal prison, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

To help a portion of those kids, Lansing’s NorthWest Initiative runs the Children with Incarcerated Parents or Relatives Program, with help from a grant from the Capital Region Community Foundation.