Helping Vans
MiX 2 million pounds of leftovers with a small charitable organization,
and you have a recipe for feeding the hungry.
MARA REINSTEIN JEWISH NEWS INTERN
I
TT
a good way to give back to the
community."
The process is simple and ef-
fective. Every day, pickup sched-
ules are made for perishable and
nonperishable foods. Usually,
the contributors are- regulars,
but there are no guarantees on
how much food will be available
Brian Raftery and Chris
Blakely drive Forgotten Har-
vest's two white vans. Except for
the driver and passenger area,
the entire van interiors are en-
cased in refrigeration units.
Therefore, the boxed food can be
transported immediately from
the contributors to the recipient
agencies. There is no warehouse
and no charge for storage.
The drivers may make more
than one stop to pick up food on
the way to the :recipient agen-
cies, depending on location and
PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPITT
the freshness and
quantity of the
items.
"Usually, bak-
eries and restau-
rants don't realize
how many people
we feed," says Mr.
Blakely. "Leftovers
from a salad bar
aren't going to feed
all the hungry peo-
ple-in the agencies.
There needs to be
a balance."
Ideal contribu-
tors include a
meat company
which has anony-
mously donated
over 100,000
pounds of food.
The Honeybaked
Ham Co. has con-
tributed 60,000-
Cornell Grinstean of Capuchin Soup Kitchen helps Brian Raftery unload food from the van.
80,000 pounds of
food over the years
about in Philadelphia ("Phil-
Other potential donors heard from its eight stores.
abundance").
about Forgotten Harvest via
Forgotten Harvest now trans-
So she worked with the Oak- word-of-mouth, and now, 39 lo- ports more than 60,000 pounds
land County Health Depart- cal distributors, ranging from of food each month to 13 local
ment, Gleaners Community Kroger Inc. to Wabeek Country agencies, which serve 25,000
Food Bank and the Oakland Club, donate food on a regular meals a week. The recipients in-
County Food Bank. Finally, with basis. Individual and private clude the Pontiac Rescue Mis-
her family's support and a parties that have a food surplus sion, Detroit Rescue Mission
$10,000 grant from Mazon, she are usually turned down because Ministries and Yad Ezra.
started Forgotten Harvest in Au- the food preparation by private
According to food industry
gust 1990.
parties isn't approved by the Na- standards — one pound equals
Six years later, the charity has tional Board of Health.
one meal — Forgotten Harvest
picked up over 2 million pounds
One of the newest contribu- is contributing 720,000 meals
of food from local restaurants tors is the Dakota Bread Com- per year.
and institutions to give to soup pany in West Bloomfield. Since
Recipient agencies must fill
kitchens and shelters. Forgotten opening last May, it has donat- out a Forgotten Harvest appli-
Harvest derived its name from ed approximately 40 pounds of cation that describes the agency,
the Old Testament dictum to unsold bread every week.
its food storage facilities, when
leave a small portion of each crop
"I contacted Forgotten Har- it serve meals, other services of-
for the needy to pick.
vest because I really like what fered and if it is licensed by the
It has received accolades from they stand for," says Dakota National Board of Health.
President Bill Clinton, Sen. Carl Bread owner David Rubin. "It's
"Unfortunately, there are no
wenty-six million people
are hungry. Half of them
are children. Ten percent
of all food produced is
wasted.
People read statistics like
these every day and as much as
they want to fix the situation, of-
ten nothing is done.
Nancy Fishman had the same
feelings of helplessness and frus-
tration.
"[The hunger problem] always
bothered me," says Dr. Fishman,
a psychologist who no longer
practices. "I didn't know what
one person could do. All I did
know was that I wanted to do
something."
Dr. Fishman joined Mazon, a
national Jewish charity that
raises money to help the hungry,
but she wanted to form a local
program like the one she read
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Levin and Mayor Dennis Archer,
and personalities like Tim Allen,
Chuck Gaidica and Mark Ridley
sit on its advisory board.
Like most nonprofit organi-
zations, Forgotten Harvest start-
ed off small. At first, the only
perishable foods collected were
restaurant leftovers that were
transported in the organization's
only van, driven by its single em-
ployee. Twenty-thousand pounds
of leftovers were distributed each
month.
Machus Restaurant & Pastry
Shops was one of the first insti-
tutions to join the Forgotten
Harvest effort. Paul Drolshagen,
vice president of operations,
says, "The bakeries still had
fresh goods by the end of the day
and [the corporation] decided
that the Forgotten Harvest char-
ity was the best use for them."