metro »

Getting a Great

RATE
is as EASY as

ABCD

1.00% APY*
10-month CD

Volunteers from
Detroit’s Eden Gardens
Block Club and IADS
work together at the
community gardens
on Detroit’s east
side: Ginger Hopkins,
Emily Phillips, Johnny
Turnage, Polly Jones,
Liz Kannon, Chava Knox
and Blair Nosan.

Food For Thought

Community members fight hunger and poor
nutrition in Southeast Michigan.

Shari S. Cohen | Contributing Writer

J

*Annual Percentage Yield (APY) of 1.00% is accurate
as of August 1, 2016. The minimum balance to open
a CD and earn the advertised APY is $1,000, which
must be deposited in a single transaction. Maximum
allowable deposit is $250,000 per account. Offer
applies to personal accounts only and may be
discontinued at any time. Deposits must be new
money (funds not currently on deposit at Talmer
Bank and Trust). A penalty may be imposed for
early withdrawals. At maturity, the CD will
automatically renew at the rate in effect on that date,
unless you instruct us otherwise.

Visit talmerbank.com for current rates, terms and
account requirements.

2127500

18 October 6 • 2016

ews throughout the world will soon
undertake the traditional Yom
Kippur fast — a mitzvah of self-
denial that sets the tone for repenting for
sins committed during the previous year.
But for one in five residents of Southeast
Michigan, fasting or eating a small meal
is not a choice but a necessity on a regular
basis. They lack sufficient healthy food
due to low income, limited nearby food
stores or inadequate transportation to
reach markets.
Many efforts are under way locally
to change this, and Jewish community
members are leading initiatives to expand
food collection and distribution to the
needy throughout the region as well as
to improve healthy food options for city
residents. Other organizations focus on
advocacy for environmental and safety
issues related to food.
Forgotten Harvest,
which collects 40
million pounds of
food annually from
local markets, farm-
ers, caterers and
food wholesalers for
redistribution to 250
Nancy Fishman emergency food pro-
viders, was started by
the Jewish community,
led by Nancy Fishman, Ph.D., in 1990.
She was concerned because so much
excess food was being wasted when it was
needed elsewhere.
This wasted food included leftovers
from bar mitzvah parties as well as large

quantities of food from wholesalers,
manufacturers and retail stores. Such
food is often close to its “sell by” date and
therefore destined for dumpsters even
though it’s safe to consume. Forgotten
Harvest collects donated food from 800
sites, using a fleet of refrigerated trucks
and delivers them to 288 agencies such
as homeless shelters, emergency food
pantries and soup kitchens throughout
the region. More than 40 million pounds
of surplus prepared and perishable food
was put to good use across the region last
year.
The idea for a food rescue organiza-
tion evolved from a Mazon Council that
was meeting at Temple Israel. Mazon,
described as a Jewish response to hunger,
provides grants to food providers in the
U.S. and Israel and advocates on behalf
of those who face hunger. The Detroiters
raised money for a soup kitchen, but
Fishman realized this wasn’t a sustainable
solution so she then created the “24th
perishable food rescue operation in the
U.S.”
Rabbi Paul Yedweb of Temple Israel,
a founding board member of Forgotten
Harvest, came up with the name — refer-
ring to the Bible’s instruction to farmers
that they leave forgotten or leftover crops
in the fields for the needy.
Fishman points out that Yad Ezra,
Metro Detroit kosher food pantry,
and other programs were offshoots of
Forgotten Harvest. Some years after it
began, the founders decided to broaden
the group beyond the Jewish community.

Fishman, 67, recently moved to a small
town in California, but stays connected
with Forgotten Harvest.
A Jewish leader-
ship perspective is
returning to Forgotten
Harvest with the elec-
tion of Hannan Lis,
57, as board chair. Lis
is well-known as a
businessman, philan-
thropist and activist
Hannan Lis
in both the Jewish and
secular communities. He is CEO of The
WW Group Inc., Weight Watchers’ largest
franchise group, and founder and CEO of
Lis Ventures LLC, a venture fund invest-
ing in emerging technologies and service
companies.
As a Forgotten Harvest board member
for several years, Lis received a “sober
awakening to the scope of the food prob-
lem. People make choices between food,
medicine and sometimes shelter. It is a
national problem that affects both city
and suburban residents,” he says.
For Lis, the importance of ensuring
sufficient food for everyone reflects his
own background. His deceased parents
experienced hunger in Europe during
World War II while living in a ghetto,
a Siberian work camp and in occupied
Transylvania.
“We need to remember our collective
experience as Jewish people and fight to
combat food insecurities for others,” he
says. “I want to expand the presence of
Forgotten Harvest in the Jewish commu-

