14 | SEPTEMBER 10 • 2020
Jews in the D
continued from page 12
COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Techner and Hack said the
community has been instru-
mental in assisting Hazon in
its redistribution mission.
“Every time we’
ve needed
help with something, someone
in the community has stepped
up,
” he said.
In July, Hazon received
17,000 pounds of chicken to
distribute to pantries, with no
place to store it. So Techner
called Temple Shir Shalom
in West Bloomfield for help.
Rabbi Michael Moskowitz
of Shir Shalom then referred
Hack to one of his temple
members, Ken Popper, the
owner of Empire Packing,
a meat storage company in
Detroit. Popper volunteered
to store 10 palettes of chick-
en, and Geoff Kretchmer,
the president of Star Trax,
an event planning company,
volunteered a box truck for
transportation of the meat.
Now, Techner said, Metro
Food Rescue can help Hazon
gradually distribute the donat-
ed chicken through the winter,
and even possibly the spring.
“This project takes a com-
munity,
” Hack said. “It’
s far
bigger than a village.
”
In the fall, Metro Food
Rescue is hoping to continue
fostering community involve-
ment through its fruit tree
rescue project. Through the
program, volunteers will pick
up excess fruit from people’
s
backyard trees, so it doesn’
t go
to waste on the ground.
“It’
s also just a really great
family-friendly way to vol-
unteer safely in these times,
”
Techner said.
LONG-TERM PLANS
Though Metro Food Rescue
has shifted course during the
time of lockdown, Techner
hopes to eventually be able
to come back to his original
inspiration for the project:
rescuing food from catered
events. When these cele-
brations resume, he plans
to restart this mission, in
addition to all the other food
rescue avenues he and Hazon
have contributed to along the
way.
Hack, whose full-time role
includes both food rescue
redistribution efforts and
many other executive director
duties, said she is excited to
see Techner take on the food
rescue project with increased
time. By the end of July 2021,
Hack says their partnership
will lean more heavily on
Techner. Meanwhile, she’
s
happy to be a part of an orga-
nization providing an essen-
tial service during a time of
extreme need.
“I’
m grateful that we are
able to do this work,” Hack
said. “It’
s mission-aligned for
us because we know we’
re
diverting food from the land-
fills, and we’
re getting people
fed.”
For Techner, too, the
initiative comes back to
a thought that keeps him
up at night: hungry people
and families. His goal is to
keep expanding Metro Food
Rescue’
s reach to help serve
even more communities
members in need.
“It is just so frustrating to
know that nearly 40% of food
gets thrown out when there
are so many people who
don’
t know where dinner is
coming from,” Techner said.
“So, it’
s been really rewarding
to see all these other avenues
that we’
ve found through the
project and to be making a
dent in food insecurity in
our local area.”
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