By Mary Jo Frank
Huron Harvest Food Bank will collect and distribute 1.3 million pounds of food to help feed Washtenaw County’s poor and homeless this year.
The United Way-funded agency, which is part of Child and Family Service of Washtenaw County, distributes cans of food and dry goods, including cereal, rice and pasta, to about 65 non-profit, tax-exempt agencies with food programs or pantries that serve low-income families.
Recipients include many Washtenaw County churches, the Salvation Army, Catholic Social Services, Dawn Farm, the Corner Health Center and the American Red Cross. Huron Harvest Food Bank doesn’t give food to individuals, only to agencies, which in turn screen clients to determine need.
The food bank shares a 9,000-square foot building on Dhu Varren Road with Foodgatherers, a program that concentrates on gathering and distributing perishable foods.
Huron Harvest Food Bank Director Tom Mahs explains that the food bank purchases canned and dry goods on sale from supermarkets. In addition, a growing number of local retailers, civic organizations and radio stations hold food drives.
The College of Pharmacy chapter of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association is sponsoring a drive for the food bank today (Oct. 18) through Oct. 29. Donations of paper products, soap, cans of food and dry goods (no glass containers) can be dropped off at a collection box in Room 1028, Pharmacy Building, according to food drive organizer Lynn Acosta, a graduate pharmacy student.
Mahs, formerly a procurement officer for Washtenaw County, relies on inmates from the county’s work program to help pack food boxes for local agencies. He could use an additional 25 volunteers willing to work four hours one or two days per month. To volunteer, call 668-1818.
Because Huron Harvest Food Bank does business with the Gleaners Community Food Bank in Detroit, it subscribes to the Gleaners’ guidelines, including requiring agencies to pay 14 cents per pound of food received and to meet storage, cleanliness and refrigeration standards.
The local food bank is a charter member of the Michigan Food Bank Coalition, which works with the Michigan Department of Agriculture to glean Michigan produce. Through the coalition, the food bank was able to buy carrots for 1 cent per pound from a Lansing-area farmer and have the carrots canned, bringing the total cost to 7 cents per can.
Child and Family Service and Huron Harvest Food Bank are among some 60 United Way-funded agencies to which
U-M employees contribute when they give to United Way. Donors also can designate gifts to any of the 60 agencies, 39 non-funded agencies or 17 Combined Health Appeal of Michigan agencies that are part of Washtenaw United Way’s campaign this year.
As of Oct. 8, University employees and retirees had donated or pledged $336,147, about 35 percent of this year’s campaign goal of $950,000.
