Our Mission: Allen Neighborhood Center (ANC) serves as a dynamic hub where Lansing Eastside neighbors access resources to improve their health and well-being; expand their capacity to seize job and entrepreneurial opportunities; create a strong sense of place, belonging, and community pride; and build a safe, sustainable, and thriving neighborhood.
About Neighbors in Need
ANC is a place-based nonprofit organization that has been serving Lansing’s Eastside since 1999. For the last 25 years, ANC has pioneered and continues to offer successful programs in health access and education, food security, youth development, housing, economic development, and social connectivity. Health, in its most holistic form, has been the guiding force of ANC since its inception. We understand that health is broad and encompassing; there are many nonmedical factors in one’s life that directly influence health outcomes, and that these outcomes can impact the trajectory of not only one’s life, but communities at large. That’s why we center grassroots organizing and finding neighborhood solutions to systemic health and housing issues. The Neighbors in Need fund needs your help to support:
- ANC’s Outreach Center, which provides information, referral and advocacy services, ensuring access to health, housing, and human services (e.g., Ingham Health Plan, MIChild, SNAP, Medicaid, foreclosure counseling, emergency shelter referrals, credit repair and financial literacy, and healthy parenting programs and classes). We operate referral systems for basic needs through other agencies, employing a ‘no wrong door’ approach to helping our neighbors.
- The Breadbasket Food Pantry, an emergency food pantry that feeds hundreds of neighbors bread and fresh produce each week. In 2023, we distributed over 91,000 pounds of food to 400 households; to make the program as accessible as possible, there are no qualifications or restrictions placed on participants.
- The Subsidized Veggie Box Program, a multi-farm CSA – Community Supported Agriculture – that unites dozens of local farmers and food producers to feed a common community through a subscription to local food. Low-income families with children and other neighbors experiencing hardships pay only $5 a week for a 14-week season, with sponsorships supplementing the rest of the cost.
- The Hunter Park GardenHouse, a hub for year-round farm and garden education. ANC’s urban farm grows thousands of pounds of fresh, local food to be donated back into the neighborhood every year, both through our existing Breadbasket Food Pantry as well as partner organizations to further our reach and help end hunger in our neighborhood.
