Hi! Welcome to my corner of the L&F website,
and Welcome to 2024!

The holidays are a special time for me. I’ve always found myself enjoying the traditions of Christmas; the trees, the lights, the tunes! It’s a special time for my family.

As you may know, the holidays can be extremely depressing, and not just for those experiencing homelessness, but many people struggle to get through the holidays.

Working in shelter, in the latter part of the year, focusing on the positive – the good that happens all around you – is of the utmost importance; not only to keep yourself prepared as you move through a sea of what can be negative thoughts and feelings being experienced by those around you, but to help combat those thoughts and feelings being experienced by those around you as well.

This holiday season, we had so much to be thankful for. We are SO grateful that all of our guests in the shelter were adopted by individuals and groups that really wanted to – and did –pour their hearts into making a positive impact on our guests this Christmas.

Seeing how the community will come together for the benefit of our guests and our shelter reminded me that the holidays are so much more than we give them credit for. It’s a time to be with family and be thankful for the time we have been given; a time to give of ourselves and carry that spirit into the New Year.

The end of the year kicked off an exciting charity event for our shelter. We are excited to be a part of “Coldest Night of The Year” (CNOY). CNOY is about getting the community together, in teams, for a walk that will be on what is statistically the coldest night of the year. You can check out cnoy.com for more information, or if you’d like to register as a team, a walker, or even a donor, you can sign up at cnoy.com/register. The walk will be held at the River Trail in Old Town on February 24, 2024. More details will be available on the Home page of our website at www.loavesandfisheslansing.org as well as on our Facebook page.  We invite and welcome anyone in the community who would like to help us raise funds for the shelter and commit themselves to something bigger than any one of us can do, or be, individually.

Finally, a HUGE Thank YOU to our dinner volunteers, dinner preparers, those who donated goods, and those who donated monetarily!  From the bottom of our hearts…THANK YOU for helping make this Holiday season a HUGE success.

Most gratefully,

Teri Looney, L&F Executive Director