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WAYNE COUNTY PARTNERS WITH FORGOTTEN HARVEST, GLEANERS TO ASSIST RESIDENTS IN NEED
WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. -Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans announced today a $400,000 program in partnership with Forgotten Harvest and Gleaners Community Food Bank to provide food assistance to residents in need as the County continues to work through the devastating health and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is funded with CARES Act funds and continues the County's commitment to helping area families during this crisis.
"Food insecurity is a challenge magnified by the COVID pandemic," said Executive Evans. "Ensuring residents have safe access to fresh food is critically important to keeping our communities healthy. Forgotten Harvest and Gleaners are doing the work to ensure families have the food they need. I'm pleased we can assist them in this mission."
The partnership will provide nearly 15,000 boxes of non-perishable food to families living in Wayne County communities. The boxes will be distributed at pre-existing food distribution sites established by both agencies as well as special locations determined by Wayne County based on community need.
"Forgotten Harvest is thankful for community partners like Wayne County," said Forgotten Harvest CEO Kirk Mayes. "This effort will help fill the basic needs of many, including children and seniors, during these difficult times."
Presently, six distribution events have are scheduled to provide food to families in need.
Friday 1/29:
- 9:00 am - 12:00 pm @ Second Ebenezer Church, 14601 Dequindre St., Detroit
- 11:00 am - 2:00 pm @ Burning Bush Church, 30355 Annapolis, Westland
- 4:00 - 6:00 pm @ Greater Grace Temple, 23500 W. 7 Mile Rd., Detroit
- 9:00 am - 12:00 pm @ Mack Alive, 3746 Fischer St., Detroit
- 9:00 am - 12:00 pm @ Corinthian Baptist Church, 1725 Caniff St., Hamtramck
- 10:00 am - 1:00 pm @ Prayer Temple of Love, 12375 Woodward Ave., Highland Park
"We encourage any family facing the hard question of 'how will we eat today?' to come to a distribution site to eliminate at least one worry in their mind," said Gleaners President and CEO Gerry Brisson.
This partnership with Gleaners and Forgotten Harvest is a continuation of efforts by Wayne County to address food insecurity during this pandemic, In 2020, the Wayne County Executive's Office worked alongside multiple local partners to distribute thousands of food boxes to families in need.
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About Gleaners Community Food Bank
Headquartered in Detroit, Gleaners serves five Southeast Michigan counties: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Monroe. Gleaners provides food to more than 520 partner soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and other agencies across the region and supplements efforts of those partners by offering direct service drive-up grocery and food box distributions. In its fiscal year 2020, Gleaners distributed nearly 64 million pounds of food to neighbors in need. Every dollar donated provides three meals, and 92 cents of every donated dollar goes to food and food programs. For more information, visit www.gcfb.org.
About Forgotten Harvest
Oak Park, Michigan-based Forgotten Harvest was formed in 1990 to fight two problems: hunger and waste. Forgotten Harvest "rescued" over 45 million pounds of food last year by collecting surplus prepared and perishable food from over 800 locations, including grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants, caterers, dairies, farmers, wholesale food distributors and other Health Department-approved sources. This donated food, which would otherwise go to waste, is delivered free-of-charge to over 250 emergency food providers in the metro Detroit area. Learn more about Forgotten Harvest and how to help drive hunger from our community at www.forgottenharvest.org
