The Forgotten Harvest mobile pantry program addresses the need to get more nutritious fresh food into the diets of food-insecure residents in high-poverty, under-served metro Detroit neighborhoods.

The Forgotten Harvest volunteer program recruits and manages the work of over 15,000 volunteers annually who provide more than 71,000 hours of service critical to the success of the mission. Their service allows Forgotten Harvest to accept tractor-trailer loads of fresh food, often packed in 700 lb. totes, and repack that food into individual and family-sized quantities, making it ready for distribution.

The summer lunch program provides healthy lunches to metro Detroit children who need emergency food during the summer when they lose access to school-provided meal programs. On average, Forgotten Harvest provides approximately 100,000 lunches to over 20,000 children throughout metro Detroit every summer. Distribution is targeted to key community partners with the most significant number of at-risk children.

Since 2012, Forgotten Harvest’s youth snack program has provided nutritious snacks to kids from kindergarten to high school attending afterschool and summer educational programs at enrichment programs throughout metro Detroit. The snacks encourage children and teens to attend programming to receive help with school work and participate in various educational programs.

During the December holiday season, Forgotten Harvest and a team of volunteers will create nearly 6,000 meal boxes, feeding up to 20,000 people throughout metro Detroit. The holiday meals are distributed to partners in areas of high food insecurity.

Forgotten Harvest’s food rescue program addresses the critical need to increase access to nutritious fresh food for low-income metro Detroit seniors.

Forgotten Harvest Farms is situated on 95 acres of donated land in Fenton with an annual yield goal of approximately 500,000 lbs. of fresh, healthy produce.