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Programs
Forgotten Harvest delivers 138,000 pounds of surplus food per day, to local charities six days a week, providing families in need with fresh and nutritious food free of charge. All the food we rescue and produce is delivered to metro Detroit families who are food-insecure and struggle to cover the cost of basic life necessities. Our food helps bridge the income gap for tens of thousands of people, allowing them to secure some basic life necessities for themselves and their family.
Make an impact on our programs by volunteering or donating.
Youth Food Programs
In an effort to relieve hunger within our youth population, Forgotten Harvest manages three programs, Healthy Food-Healthy Kids, the Summer Food Service Program, and the Child and Adult Care Food Program. Forgotten Harvest does not directly supply the food for the latter two programs, but serves as the coordinating sponsor with financial support from Michigan Department of Education.
Healthy Food – Healthy Kids (HFHK) was created as a part of a continuous effort to address food insecurity for children in metro Detroit, Forgotten Harvest’s “Healthy Foods – Healthy Kids” initiative works to provide access to nutritious food for nearly 200,000 children in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. This initiative combats hunger with three different programs: Summer Lunch Program, Detroit Public Library Healthy Kids Partnership and School Pantry Program. Click here to find out more.
The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) was created to ensure that children (under the age of 18) in lower-income areas continue to receive nutritious meals during summer vacations, when they do not have access to the National School Lunch or School Breakfast Programs. The SFSP, also known as Meet Up and Eat Up, is operated at the local level by program Sponsors and is administered by the Michigan Department of Education (MDE).
The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) is also a federally funded, State-administered, program. Forgotten Harvest is concentrating on the At-Risk, After-school meals component of CACFP. Children (under the age of 18) who participate in structured, after-school programs in lower income areas will be served healthy suppers and snacks.
Mobile Pantry Program
During each day of operation, Forgotten Harvest mobile pantry sites serve an average of 250 families, with some serving as many as 700 families. People receive a mix of fresh meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, baked goods and prepared foods.
Our Mobile Pantry Program enables us to feed hundreds of families in underserved areas and deliver up to 26,000 pounds of food at one location in a farmers’ market setting. Recipients are assured of a healthy assortment of meats, dairy, produce and fresh fruit, foods that would otherwise be unaffordable and unavailable to families without the help of the Forgotten Harvest Mobile Pantry Program.
Find out how to become a mobile pantry.
We need your to help keep our mobile pantry program going.
On-the-Go Mobile Pantry Program
Forgotten Harvest On-the-Go Mobile Pantry program distributes food to high-poverty, under-served neighborhoods without permanent emergency food distribution locations. Currently, we have 68 regular mobile pantry sites in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties receiving fresh, healthy rescued food. Each site serves between 250-750 families. The On-the-Go program gives us the ability to serve a location of increased need when there is not a permanent pantry partner in an area or when we want to test the viability of a long term location.
New Forgotten Harvest On-the-Go sites will be chosen based on the food insecurity index developed in coordination with Landgrid and Data Driven Detroit. Areas shaded dark green represent areas with higher food insecurity.
Areas of focus in 2021:
| Sterling Heights | Wyandotte |
| Chesterfield | Southwest Detroit |
| Brandon | Clinton Twp |
| Westland | Macomb |
| Flat Rock | Madison Heights |
| Milford | Utica |
| Novi | Hazel Park |
We are adding additional Forgotten Harvest On the Go sites in three different ways:
- Based on current resource availability within our regular mobile pantry schedule. Resources refer to dock time, warehouse capacity, driver, and truck.
- Replacing slots that are closed in the interim either due to COVID or weather.
- Set up temporary or limited timeframe locations based on partnership opportunity or excess surplus food.
If there are any additional questions or you would like to request a consultation for a new site location please reach out to Marguerite Kaiser: mkaiser@forgottenharvest.org.
We need your to help keep our On-the-Go Mobile Pantry program going.
