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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