10/11/2026
Even as the number of food pantries drops in West Michigan, the donations continue to rise: https://bit.ly/4hBD5cs
Police and church groups in Grandville took in thousands of pounds of supplies Saturday during "Faith and Blue" weekend.
The national effort aims to build neighborhood trust in police through community events.
Grandville connected with its community by recognizing a difficult truth, that too many families don’t have what they need in their kitchen.
"We just recognized that there was a need to help kind of restock the local church pantries, which are well used in this community," Grandville Police Chief Darin Rietman said.
For two hours volunteers took in fruits, vegetables, pasta and other food items at Family Fare and Target.
They then took those items, along with other basic needs like soap and toothpaste, to the police department to be distributed among six local churches.
It follows this month’s closure of the Allegan County food pantry, which put more pressure on charitable groups as far away as Holland and Zeeland.
"It's one of those, ‘Can I go out and get my prescription today or, you know, can I get a can of chicken soup?’" Grandville-Jenison Congregational Church Pastor Lu Saenz said.
He takes calls from people requesting help at Grandville-Jenison Congregational Church, and says the economy is the number-one reason for those calls.
For them, inflation doesn’t just mean concern about higher prices, but uncertainty about how high they’ll go.
