LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) The Fretail Store is a nonprofit that provides food, clothing, diapers, personal care items, and many more services to the Lansing community.
“So far this year, we’ve given out 1,140 kitchen bags and 13-gallon bags full of clothing in the first three months of the year — just from our tiny 900 square foot store,” said Fretail Store founder Mike Karl.
Karl is also the founder of the nonprofit Cardboard Prophets, and for the past year and a half, volunteers with the Fretail Store have operated out of a tiny storefront in the Lansing Mall.
He said the store serves 80 to 100 people a day after just two hours of being open.
But with the move down the hall to the vacant space, it will be able to dedicate separate rooms to specific needs.
Those include more space for a diaper bank, clothing, and a free supermarket.
Karl said he is looking to be settled into the new space by June 1, but before that happens the store need more volunteers.
It’s an expansion that Karl and the team hope will get them to more people in need.
“Thousands of diapers, thousands of pounds of food, thousands of personal care items and clothing; 6,200 square feet of space — and we are going to use every ounce of it to advance helping people in the city of Lansing.”
