Small south Lansing church plans 'big things' with $100,000 addition to help community

LANSING — For a small church of about 125 to 150 members, The Bread House South is doing big things for the community, Bishop Victor Trevino Sr. said.

The church at 5606 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. on Lansing’s south side helps about 100 families a month, over 1,000 a year, with its free clothing closet and food pantry.

It also might not be small for much longer, with plans for a $100,000 phase one addition for a community center with more space for the food pantry, closet and a commercial kitchen to further fill the community's needs.

“Why a community center? Because during the pandemic we started a clothing closet that has just taken off,” Trevino said in a project promotional video. “We’re at least averaging 20 to 30 families a week coming to the clothing closet, coming to the food pantry, and it has been a huge blessing at the point where we’ve had to move our clothing closet to other areas of the church, trying to make room for the people coming in.”

The Bread House South started in 2004 as a Spanish/bilingual ministry that has grown into a multicultural church, according to its website.

It has multiple community outreach ministries. Cheril Glasslee and her mom, Eva Sampson, started the free food pantry and clothes closet in early 2020. People can get free clothes and food from the church between noon and 2 p.m. Fridays.

Glasslee said people don’t have to prove a financial need for the items. They just ask participants to sign their names so the church and Capital Area Community Services, Inc., a social services organization that donates food, knows how much to provide for the community.

The church accepts clean and gently used clothing donations. It doesn’t accept bigger appliance donations or furniture because the church doesn’t have the room to store it. Hopefully, the addition will help with that, Glasslee said.

Once the church gets a bigger food pantry, she hopes to partner with the Greater Lansing Food Bank to get a bigger variety of food such as fresh produce and dairy products, she said. The church currently takes monetary donations for food and supplies people need such as fish, butter, Swiss cheese, soup, peanut butter and rice.

“We like to make sure they have enough,” Glasslee said.

People from all over Greater Lansing come for help. A student from Michigan State University once came looking for suits for interviews, Trevino said.

On Friday, the church had items such as a hair dryer, decorative statues, cooking tools, and clothes, all available for free.

Lansing resident Bambi DeBruine was there with her two kids and a nephew. She said she started coming to the Friday event over a year ago when she heard about it in her neighborhood.

“It really helps out a lot,” she said.

She said she always finds nice stuff and it feels like shopping, going through the clothes hanging from the racks. Because it’s free, it’s better than going to thrift stores that have had rising prices, DeBruine said.

If someone has kids and needs help with clothes, “I tell them to come here and check it out,” she said.

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The church is waiting on final building authorizations from the city for its addition and aims to break ground by next year and open by 2024, Trevino said.

He said the addition is being funded through donations; some church members are contractors who have offered services to cut construction costs.

Along with the commercial kitchen and more closet and pantry space, the church wants a multi-purpose room for the community. It will be a place to have bigger funerals, a gym where kids can hang out and can be another resource for the community.

“The south side needs this,” Trevino said, and it’s in a great spot walking distance from a lot of low-income housing.

Glasslee always dreamed of opening a thrift shop, but never in a million years imagined she’d run something like the free closet and pantry.

“This is where God wanted us,” she said. “He put it together.”

People can find out more about the church on its Facebook page, website or can contact the church at 517-203-5765 and thebreadhousesouth@gmail.com.

Contact Bryce Airgood at 517-267-0448 or bairgood@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @bairgood123.