About Family Network of Wyoming  
 
Mission Statement - "To serve the greater Wyoming area by providing food, resources, and services to people in need"

Wyoming, Michigan, a suburb of Grand Rapids, has 15 neighborhoods with over fifty percent of it residents being low income. The average income of Wyoming residents dropped 15 percent in the last year. Wyoming Public School reported that 53 percent of the student body is on the assisted lunch program for this school year with one elementary school at 89 percent.

On April 1, 2004 Family Network of Wyoming opened as a client choice pantry in a 600 square foot office serving an average of 11 families per week and provided one food truck per month. In our first year of operation the food programs served 130,000 pounds of food distributed between 1400 households. In 2006, Family Network’s food programs distributed over 232,000 pounds of food to 3300 families.

Currently the client choice pantry is operating in a 2000 square foot store-front at 2575 28th Street Southwest in Wyoming, serving an average of 50 families per week offering healthy and nutritious food as well as personal care items.
The Mobile Food Truck program operates in partnership with four churches and Second Harvest Gleaners of West Michigan. Each mobile food truck distributes nearly 7500 pounds of perishable food items four times a month to over 700 families. There are 100 volunteers from our church partners who are building relationships within their communities.

The Special Diet Pantry serves individuals suffering from food allergies and chronic illnesses offering food items specific to their particular diet. Family Network also provides the USDA Food Commodities and the Food Assistance Program which signs up potential Food Stamp recipients.

Local food drives have been a great resource and community service project. A major drive is the annual October Community Food Drive which coordinates with ACCESS county-wide effort. We collected door to door over 10 tons of food for our area.
At Christmas many families do not have the funds for gifts for their children. Five churches sponsor the Wyoming Christmas Store to meet this need. Churches donate Christmas gifts to allow parents to come and shop for their children at a reduced price. In 2006, families were able to shop and purchase presents for 180 children. This year the Christmas Store is partnering with another food pantry to allow more families to take advantage of this program and we are looking for more church sponsors.
The free Medical Equipment Library provides wheel chairs, walkers, and shower stools to anyone in need. The Employment Assistance and Skill Building Resource Programs are also available.

Gardening Residents of Wyoming (GROW) is our newest ministry. GROW provides material resources, educational opportunities, and technical support to gardeners, community gardens and gardening education programs in the greater Wyoming area.
The partnerships with ACCESS, UCOM, Second Harvest Gleaners, Pregnancy Resource Center and Spectrum’s Health Nutritional Options on Wellness, as well as our partner churches, donors and volunteers help extend our services to clients.

As the needs for the Wyoming area grows, our heart of caring and giving must also grow to provide resources and services to those in need within our community.

Family Network’s mission is to serve the greater Wyoming area by providing food, resources, and services to people in need. Our ultimate mission is to do God’s work and to grow His kingdom. Our prayer is that by demonstrating God’s love and mercy through Family Network’s services and programs others will want to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.