Busch’s Fresh Food Market, in partnership with Food Gatherers and other local food banks, will help to feed children and families struggling with hunger with their All aBout Children Food Drive, kicking off May 7^th and continuing through May 16^th.

GIVE:  

1.    Customers can purchase pre-made “Ready to Go” food donation bags filled with items to be given to a family in need. Customers are asked to donate $10 for each bag. They can also drop off non-perishable food in the Food Drive bin located in each store.

2.    A is for Apple. Customers can make monetary produce donations in $5 increments at the Busch’s checkout registers. These will be converted into produce donations to Food Gatherers.

3.    B is for Bakery. Customers can make bakery donations in $10 increments at the Busch’s checkout registers. These will be converted into bakery donations to Food Gatherers.

4.    C is for Cash. Customers can make a contribution of any amount at the Busch’s checkout registers. Dollars go directly to local food banks. 

About 17 million kids nationwide and 1 in 6 children in Washtenaw County, will struggle with hunger this summer.  The summer months are hard on low-income families who depend on reduced-priced and free school meals to stretch their family food budget. In partnership with Food Gatherers and several local food banks; Busch’s aims to reduce that number.

In the last two Busch’s food drive events, more than $300,000 in food donations was raised to help local families in need.

Donations made at Busch’s Fresh Food Markets locations in Washtenaw County will benefit Food Gatherers. Please visit www.buschs.com/storelocations to find a complete list of stores.

April 2012 marks the seventh year that our family has hosted the “Tim Esch Scouting For Food Birthday Party.”  Tim was an Eagle Scout with Ann Arbor Boy Scout Troop 4 who loved scouting, with its emphasis on enjoying the outdoors and helping others.

Troop 4 has participated in the annual spring food drive for Food Gatherers for years, and Tim was especially successful in collecting donations.  The first neighbor he shyly asked responded with three bags of groceries!  Tim quickly learned that most people are very willing to help if offered the opportunity to do so.  He was amazed that in a thriving community like Ann Arbor there could be so many people that didn’t have enough to eat and Scouting For Food was a very effective way to help.

Tim graduated from Pioneer High School in 2005 and went off to college that fall.  In November he came home for a wonderful campout with Troop 4 and a first reunion with his Scout friends who had also gone away from home.  Two days later Tim died in an auto accident.  It was a great loss for our family and for the Troop 4 family who compiled a beautiful memory book about Tim, remembering his sunny smile, easy-going personality and willingness to help.

The next spring when the Scouting For Food project coincided with Tim’s April birthday, we decided to honor Tim by continuing his efforts for the food drive.  We sent invitations to everyone on Tim’s food donation list and anyone else we could think of.  We baked lots of cupcakes which were enjoyed by the many generous people who brought food and warm memories of Tim.  Such purposeful activity has been a healing and encouraging time for us.

Our annual Scouting For Food party is a very special way to honor Tim’s spirit of caring about the world and his dedication to the Scout oath to “…help other people at all times…”  We’re so thankful to Food Gatherers for providing the means by which we can do something real and meaningful with our lives, like Tim did.

This post was contributed by Dave, Jan & Julie Esch. Their continued and generous work with the Scouting for Food Drive was also featured this weekend on AnnArbor.com – you can read more here.

We are thrilled to announce that Alex Bloom, a long-time volunteer with Food Gatherers, won the 2012 Volunteer Service Award at the annual Feeding America Network Summit in Detroit last week. This prestigious award is given to the year’s most distinguished volunteer from the 202 food banks across the nation in the Feeding America network.

Alex Bloom receives his Volunteer of the Year Award at the Feeding America Hunger's Hope Awards in Detroit.

Alex, who started at Food Gatherers as a volunteer 19 years ago (only 5 years after the organization was founded), has volunteered three days a week ever since Day 1.  In that time, he has spent more than 8,500 hours fighting hunger in the Ann Arbor community.

Alex started at Food Gatherers through a community-based special education program focused on providing a transition from the stability of a classroom setting, to an independent work setting. Each volunteer shift, he greets staff and volunteers, inquires about their work, and injects a sense of lightheartedness into the business of feeding more than 48,000 people.

“It’s truly inspiring to see the great work and contribution to hunger relief that Alex is doing with Food Gatherers,” said Vicki Escarra, President and CEO of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief charity. “Without his help – and the help of all our volunteers – it would be impossible for us to meet the challenge of ending food insecurity in our country. This award is a tribute to the dedication that Alex has shown to our mission.”

“He is a natural ambassador, making friends and building bridges – in the office, during trips to the post office, at food bank events, and in the community.  He is upbeat and hardworking, and is a great part of the team,” said Eileen Spring, President and CEO of Food Gatherers.

Please join us in congratulating Alex on this honor!

I was two years old the first time I went to Grillin’. Year after year I continued to enjoy it, but up until a few years ago I wasn’t aware of all the other amazing things Food Gatherers does.  Then two years ago, my mom signed us up for a shift at the Community Kitchen over my winter break. Like most typical teenagers would, I groaned about it at first. Waking up early to serve the hungry wasn’t exactly how I pictured spending my precious days off. But now, I am so glad that I decided to go.

Shortly after beginning a weekly volunteer shift at the Community Kitchen, I also began volunteering at the Warehouse. I participated in boxing food to be sent out throughout the community, sorting various produce and bagging a variety of foods in serving size bags. One of the things I love most about volunteering, is I get to do it with my mom. Over the past two years, we have been able to spend a lot of quality time together through Food Gatherers and we have enjoyed bonding over activities ranging from cooking tuna noodle casserole for 120 people to making a mess of ourselves as we bagged flour. Another thing I look forward to every time I volunteer at Food Gatherers is the incredible friendliness and patience of the staff. I have volunteered at many other organizations and I have never met a staff that is as dedicated as they are.

Food Gatherers has greatly enriched my life and truly made me a better person. The feeling you get when you realize how many people you are feeding and how gracious they are for this food is unexplainable. I cannot imagine what would have happened if I had decided to sleep in that first day I went to the Community Kitchen.

Emily Diehl is a regular volunteer at Food Gatherers. She is 15 and a freshman in high school.

The first time I heard of Food Gatherers was over 20 years ago when my parents attended the first  annual Grillin’, which was held outside of Casey’s Tavern.  Imagine fitting all of the Grillin’ attendees into that space now!  My parents raved about what a great organization it was, so I became a financial contributor.  I thought about volunteering, but was working full time and did not think it would fit into my schedule.  Little did I know that volunteering at Food Gatherers does not need to be a regular commitment, and there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer in the evenings and on weekends.

Fast forward 20 years.  I am working fewer hours and have a wonderful daughter, but feel that I am missing something in my life.  Fortuitously, a postcard from Food Gatherers arrives in the mail seeking volunteers for their Rockin’ for the Hungry event held every December.  I decide that standing outside collecting money and food donations and “freezin’ for a reason” sounds like a good cause so I sign up for a shift.  I learn more about Food Gatherers that day and am so impressed by the dedication and enthusiasm of the staff, that I become a regular volunteer.  I start out doing a weekly food run, riding on the trucks and collecting food from stores and restaurants.  This experience is so rewarding that I decide to add a weekly shift preparing and serving lunch at the Community Kitchen which proves to be equally rewarding.

The staff at Food Gatherers are always so gracious with thanking their volunteers, but I actually feel like I need to thank them for providing these experiences which have so greatly enriched my life.

Amy Diehl is a regular food run and Community Kitchen volunteer at Food Gatherers.

What did our volunteer program do when we found ourselves with too much work at our warehouse and not enough volunteers? We created additional times for volunteers to help out!

We have added regular shifts on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings for volunteers at our warehouse on Carrot Way. These shifts are from 5:30pm-7:30pm, and both individuals and groups can sign up in advance to help us sort and repackage perishable, canned and dry goods for our hungry neighbors! You can sign up for a single shift, or explore options for a regular schedule (weekly or monthly.) These evening shifts are great for people who have other commitments during the daytime, and we can usually accommodate families with children 8 and older.

On one of our first evening shifts last week , our team of volunteers had a short tour and quickly moved through repackaging pallets of donated dry goods from large bulk boxes into 2 lb bags in our food rescue room! We worked so efficiently that we had time left to sort our donated boxes of bread and organize items onto bread racks for easy ‘shopping’ at our network of pantries. What a great way to kick off our new shifts, with a great team and great productivity!

Our goal for this year is to distribute 5.75 million pounds of food, with 1/3 being produce and 1/6 being protein. To maximize our use of rescued food and meet our goal, we must work quickly to sort these items and ready them for distribution. The additional shifts help us mobilize more help to get the food out quickly to those in need.

For more information about available shifts and to sign up, please contact volunteer@foodgatherers.org or visit www.foodgatherers.org/volunteer!

Marz Roehrig is a Volunteer Coordinator at Food Gatherers.

In September of 2011, Peace Neighborhood Center (PNC) became 1 of 2 sites involved in Food Gatherers’ fresh produce distribution program.  Initially held at 2 sites, PNC and Catholic Social Services, PNC has been the sole distribution program site of fresh fruit and vegetables since early October 2011.

I must admit that after our first few days of distribution, I was worried about our ability to attract families.  Catholic Social Services was seeing, literally, hundreds of families weekly and we weren’t even seeing dozens. In fact, during the first couple of weeks we were lucky to get 10 or 15 families.  I wasn’t sure if it was our location (deep on the west side of Ann Arbor) or the fact that Fridays were completely void of dry weather. If the weather man has named it – rain, hail, snow, fog, sleet -it has come down at sometime between 10am and 12pm on a Friday.  Then to make matters worse, on one of the few clear, sunny Friday mornings, we created our own indoor rain storm when an overheated rooftop furnace caused the sprinkler system to engage.

I am glad to say that as of February 2012 we are seeing about 60 families a week and new families are coming each and every Friday! We have had some very eventful Friday mornings, usually involving the foods we are distributing.  I am now an expert on the cooking and preparation of patty pan squash, celery root and could (thanks to Nicole’s recipes*) tell 100 different ways to prepare a potato. I must also say that I would have never dreamed in a million years that it would be easier to get people to take 4 cartons of sunflower milk than it is to get them to take just 1 additional bag of carrots.

The experience of starting a produce distribution at PNC has been great. One of the best things about our distribution is the diversity. Families of many different sizes, clients and volunteers of many different ages, educational backgrounds, religions, races, cultures – all come together for a couple of hours every Friday.  I love seeing the camaraderie that goes on as the early birds gather in our reception lobby waiting on the distribution to begin.  Although they are all facing tough times, almost everyone who comes has a smile on their face when they come in and a smile on their face when they leave. Thank you Food Gatherers!

Kenya Hunter is the Program Coordinator/Site Manager at Peace Neighborhood Center, a Food Gatherers partner agency.  She is also the main coordinator for PNC’s Friday Produce Distributions.

*Nicole Miller, R.D. is the Agency Relations Coordinator at Food Gatherers.

Hello, world! I’m John Reed, Director of Operations at Food Gatherers.

A few weeks ago, Food Gatherers welcomed Hiller’s Markets to our food rescue program – which got me thinking about the impact food rescue has on our community.

Every day, hundreds of employees in food businesses all across Washtenaw County work to set aside usable food items for us to pick up and distribute to our hungry neighbors.  Back at the warehouse, volunteers work alongside our staff to sort rescued food, making sure it is safe and packed properly for distribution.  Our drivers are on the road six days a week maintaining this crucial link between food donors and the agencies on the front lines of hunger relief.  Every link in this chain of activity is important as we make sure all this healthy food stays safe and quickly moves from donors to our neighbors in need.

I got my start in food rescue as a food run volunteer back in June 2001.  I remember being blown away by the simplicity of it: the staff driver and I would pick up produce, bread, sandwiches, meat and other items from grocery stores and drop off some of it to a few non-profit agencies around town.  The rest of the food went back to the warehouse to go out with other drivers.  These items were past their retail prime but still good, healthy foods.  It made perfect sense to bridge the space between those with food to give and those who need food!  These days, I find myself sitting at a desk more than out in the community every day, but I still see amidst the busy warehouse and pantry traffic the glow of happy faces that comes from helping make the simple solution of food rescue a reality.

Food Gatherers received food donations from more than 1,040 sources in 2011, totaling more than 4.3 million pounds of food.  This group includes 30 very generous grocery suppliers who, through their regular gifts, combined for nearly half of all donations at just over 2 million pounds of food.  With the recent addition of Hiller’s Markets, this group of regulars climbs to 31. Click here for a list of our food donors!

Generous donors of food and funds; amazing volunteers who give their time to help others; our hard-working employees and board of directors; dedicated agencies serving our needy neighbors on the front lines of hunger relief – all play vital roles in Washtenaw County’s food rescue operation.  I consider myself incredibly lucky to be part of this community-wide effort fighting hunger where we live.

Have you ever taught a group of fifteen teenagers how to chop onions?

As the Special Projects Coordinator for Food Gatherers, I wear many hats and take on a variety of responsibilities. By far, the best part of my job is mentoring the young people who participate in our annual Community Kitchen Job Training Program and Student Internship Program.

Each Spring and Summer, Food Gatherers offers two intense six week sessions where young men and women, ages 17-24, come to learn culinary skills and get tutorials on many topics surrounding today’s food industry.  Important life skills and a variety of guest speakers are also part of the curriculum.

Job Training Program Classes 12 and 13 celebrated their graduation in summer 2011 with chef coats and golden spoons. Photo credit: Mark Bialek.

While many of our students come to us at risk of poverty and homelessness, we have a high rate of success placing our students in the job market or back in school.  In fact, 90 % of our graduates have gone on to permanent jobs or returned to school.

If a student shows an interest in further professional development, Food Gatherers offers concentrated one-on-one internships. Here, students get to further their culinary skills and learn more about today’s food world.  Typically, internships last 6-10 weeks.

Recently, however, we had two interns work with us at the Community Kitchen for a year and a half.  Rodrick Hamilton and Jua’Tyena Lyons were tremendous students who made great strides with us, and have become great ambassadors for our program.  They made huge contributions to our Community Kitchen, and found a special place in the hearts of the many volunteers who worked side by side with them over the past several months.

I can proudly report that at the conclusion of their internships, both Rodrick and Jua’Tyena have found permanent employment.  Tyena is working at the Delonis Center three days a week and Rodrick has the distinction of being the first student/intern to be hired directly as a fellow Food Gatherer as our new Warehouse Assistant. We are proud to have him as a fellow colleague! In addition to her new work responsibilities, Jua’Tyena has set her sights on the culinary arts and wants to study to be a dietitian.

With March just days away, we are already planning for the next group of students.  Classes will begin in mid-May and I can’t wait for our 14^th and 15^th Job Training Programs to begin!

Valentine’s Day – a day for love, roses, chocolate, and for the well-versed: poetry. Last month I attended the Broken Circles Hunger Project, a poetry fundraiser to benefit Food Gatherers. The event was sponsored by Cave Moon Press and Springfed Arts and featured poetry, songs and readings from Keith Taylor, Joy Gaines-Friedler, Jeff Kass, francine j. harris, John D. Lamb, Lynn DeTurk and students from the Neutral Zone.

With permission from Keith Taylor and Sam Kass, we are happy to share two of our favorites that were read that evening.

IF YOU KNOW THAT MAN
I don’t even remember his name,
only that he gave me a grapefruit one winter night thirty years ago.
I was broke and hungry. I didn’t know
when I’d eat, and he gave me that fruit,
all juice and pulp, tasting of an earth
I’d never seen. If you know the man,
tell him I turned out fat and happy.

- Keith Taylor, Marginalia for a Natural History, New York, New York: Black Lawrence Press

Poet and writer Keith Taylor coordinates the undergraduate program in creative writing at the University of Michigan, directs the Bear River Writer’s Conference, and is the poetry editor for Michigan Quarterly Review.

When I wake up

there’s sunshine and the skies sparkle,
a chill mist hangs in the air,
but I know there’s someone somewhere crying,
someone somewhere soaking,
someone somewhere hating this rain.

You have nowhere to go
but the bakery’s awning.
I can’t understand why people
don’t give you their hearts.
That’s why I dropped five dollars
I earned into the donation box,
why I can’t sleep after seeing
sleeping bags along the road.

You shouldn’t be living the life
of a raccoon, no. A few days ago
I saw a boy, his mother asking for change,
and I want to ask for change too,
a change in how we treat people
begging for money, scavenging for food,
people with nowhere to go
when it rains.

-Sam Kass, 5th Grade, Ann Arbor Schools

In total, the Broken Circles Hunger Project gathered 121 pounds of food and $3,147 – the equivalent of more than 9,500 meals for individuals and families in need in Washtenaw County. Thank you to all involved and a Happy Valentine’s Day to all!