|
President Sue called today’s meeting to order at the Lansing Center and the invocation was eloquently presented by John Shaski and followed by the singing of our National Anthem. I think we’re all in agreement it’s always nice when Heidi McNaughton is live and in person singing the National Anthem with her beautiful voice! Susan Angel introduced us to Marcy Rzepka from the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce while also handling microphone duties for the day. With great sadness, Rotarians took a moment of silence to recognize the sudden passing of Paul Rathbun. Paul was a great humanitarian for the community, and he will be missed by so many. Scott Duimstra provided our Loftus update on this last week prior to our Loftus Day meeting on September 10. Scott reminded us it’s a day Lansing Rotarians remember and recognize those who have passed and are buried at our local cemeteries. You can order flowers from Rotarian Rick Anthony at Rick Anthony’s Flower Shop at (517) 484-5387 for delivery to the Lansing Center. The list of the teams to go out and visit are on the tables. Team leaders should be in contact with their teams. Diane Sanborn provided the Health of the Club report and updated that Lisa Smith’s husband is out of the hospital and doing better. As Foundation President, Diane reported out that our Rotary District was collecting donations from each Club in the district for relief for the emergency situation in Haiti. The Foundation voted to provide $1,000 in funding to the effort. Rotarians are able to give personal donations to the fund if desired through Partners in Health at https://www.pih.org/ Brian Philson received big applause by sharing those celebrating August birthdays achieved 100% giving to the Foundation and raised $775. Brian shared the question of the month was “What was the Craziest Thing you experienced on a Rotary Zoom Meeting?” This Editarian is glad none of the responses included anything embarrassing from Past President Julie! Happy Birthday to those celebrating birthdays in August! Thank you to our Chair of the Month and Chair of the Day Rebecca Bahar Cook! Rebecca introduced us to Joan Nelson, a powerhouse and friend to many in the room serving as the Director of the Allen Neighborhood Center. Rebecca praised Joan for making the world a better place and being fearless in asking for the resources to provide what the Center needs throughout her 20 years of service. Joan provided the history of the Allen Neighborhood Center over these past twenty years serving Lansing’s Eastside Neighborhood encompassing all of the 48912 zip code. The neighborhood is the most diverse in the City and encompasses 18,500 people and over 8,500 residences. The Center started through the East Side Summit with support from Sparrow to address health resources, access to food, education, etc. for the neighborhood. In 1999, the initiative became the Allen Neighborhood Center. In 2000, a food pantry was created to address hunger with weekly access to fresh produce. The organization wanted to go beyond addressing emergency needs to building capacity for the neighborhood which led to the formation of the Allen Farmers Market opening in 2004. The Market became the first Farmers Market in Michigan to accept food stamps. With a Cool Cities grant funding, the Hunter Park Gardenhouse was created in 2008 to provide farming and gardening education along with kid’s programs, plant sales and an edible park featuring 28 fruit trees. By 2012, over $850,000 was raised to add a building for the market and a food resource center which enabled the Market to be open 50 weeks a year. A kitchen was added to the building in 2014 which has now served as an incubator for 60 small businesses and 24% of them have created a brick and mortar location including several catering companies and Sleepwalker Spirits in REO Town. Of the 60 incubator businesses, 52% were woman owned and 43% were owned by People of Color. The kitchen is now named the Maker Kitchen powered by Lake Trust. There are only 12 other food incubators in the State of Michigan. In serving as a food hub, the Center also offers weekly Veggie Boxes with produce from 30 farms with over 700 subscribers participating. The big news is the Center purchased the adjoining building with co-developer Cinnaire to create Allen Place opening in November. The site had many environmental challenges but will provide an intersection of housing, food, energy and innovation. The Place added a 3-story new construction for mixed use and housing. It will serve as an Ingham County Health Department location offering a clinic, lab, behavioral services and a pharmacy. It also will include ELFCO, a food co-op serving as a consignment grocery and offering a sales outlet for the Maker Kitchen. A mural by Brian Whitfield will be a feature of the outside of the building. The LBWL is creating a micro grid at the site for energy efficiency through solar power. It is an $11 million project and the 21 housing units will be mixed income and age friendly. In March, the Center opened an Accelerator Kitchen for entrepreneurs renting on a monthly basis for that step between and Incubator Kitchen and a storefront. The businesses open in the Accelerator include Mr. Leslie’s Cheesecakes, Tantay Peruvian Cuisine, and Smoothie Queen. The work of the Allen Neighborhood Center is carried out by nine staff and over 500 volunteers and interns and a great Board including Rotarian Rebecca Bahar Cook. Joan filled us all with a lot of great information about the wonderful work being done through the Allen Neighborhood Center. President Sue thanked Joan for joining us and presented her with the Rotary 4-Way Test card and mentioned the donation being made in her name to our Foundation to continue good work in the community. President Sue announced that there will be no meeting next week due to the Labor Day Holiday. Our next meeting will be back at the Lansing Center on September 10 for Loftus Day. See you then! Julie Pingston's email is: jpingston@lansing.org |
