PACKING HOPE
Forgotten Harvest volunteers filling 12,000 holiday meal boxes for those in need
Volunteers at Forgotten Harvest are working to make sure those experiencing food insecurity have what they need to make a holiday meal.
Headquartered in Oak Park, Forgotten Harvest is partnering with the Kroger Co. of Michigan and the Lineage Foundation for Good to give nearly 12,000 households throughout metro Detroit the free food boxes.
The Hope for the Holidays food box effort started this month, said Christopher Ivey, head of communications and marketing for the nonprofit group.
“Forgotten Harvest is metro Detroit’s largest food rescue organization,” Ivey said. “We rescue over 40 million pounds of food annually, which is then distributed to over 200 agency pantry partners in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties.”
The nonprofit has over 20,000 volunteers this year.
“We have volunteers packaging 12,000 Hope for the Holiday meal kits,” Ivey said, “so everybody will be able to have a holiday meal this year.”
Each of the boxes are filled with foods such as chicken, potatoes, onions, apples, milk, eggs, plus canned beans, soups and fruit, along with rice, walnuts, stuffing and gravy packets, flour, candy and other items.
Boxes of fresh and shelf-stable foods come with a recipe card provided by the United Dairy Industry of Michigan.
The holiday food boxes will be delivered from today through Dec. 13 to all of Forgotten Harvest’s affiliated mobile food pantries.
Locations of those mobile pantries can be found online at forgottenharvest.org/findfood.
Ivey said people can also volunteer or make donations.
“Whether it’s the holidays, or January or February, we always need volunteers,” he said. “We always need volunteers during the colder months. Hunger doesn’t take the winter off.”
Cam Barrett, corporate affairs manager for the Kroger Co. of Michigan, said in a statement food is at the heart of holiday traditions.
“Through this impactful partnership with Forgotten Harvest,” Barrett said, “we are helping to ensure that 12,000 families across Southeast Michigan have their rightful seat at the table …”
Rising food prices and inflation has made this year a stressful one for many families throughout metro Detroit, said Marsha Hazen, program officer for the Lineage Foundation for Good, in a statement.
The foundation is a philanthropic group that, like Forgotten Harvest, seeks to reduce food waste and fight hunger, and is also supporting the Hope for the Holidays effort.
Founded in 1990, Forgotten Harvest collects food that would otherwise likely go to waste to feed those in need.
The organization rescued more than 40 million pounds of food last year by collecting surplus prepared and perishable food from more than 560 locations.
Those locations include restaurants, caterers, dairies, farmers, wholesale food distributors, grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets and other sources approved by government health departments.