Return to Ethical Eating Home Page

Food Gatherers Welcomes UUAA Volunteers!

Despite sunshine, clear skies and the promise of spring possibly arriving Saturday, April 2, 2011, twenty-two people showed up at 1 Carrot Way to spend the morning working in the Food Gatherers warehouse. Missy Orge, the Chief Program Officer, provided a brief orientation and tour before getting us started on tasks.

One group sorted canned and dried goods into boxes for distribution in the big warehouse while another was responsible for turning bread into bags of croutons or stuffing mix.

While our work was not particularly challenging, it was important and it does make a difference in our community. Each year, almost 5,000 volunteers do 70% of the work at Food Gatherers.

Ours was a truly all-ages activity, with children as young as 7 and as old as me participating! It was also great to see families come out to spend a morning doing service work together, and having fun in the process.

Since it’s inception in 1998, Food Gatherers has distributed nearly 14 million pounds of food, providing enough food for approximately 10,000 meals a day in Washtenaw County. Last year alone the organization was responsible for 5 million pounds of food to 164 agencies. By working with other support agencies in the county, they provide an additional service – for every dollar of food provided by Food Gatherers (to clinics, shelters, etc), that’s a dollar that the agency can spend directly on other services (medicine, procedures, housing, etc). Food Gatherers exists to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes in our community by: reducing food waste through the rescue and distribution of food; coordinating with other hunger relief providers; educating the public about hunger; and developing new food resources. http://www.foodgatherers.org/

Many thanks to all those who came out and participated in our second EET action project. - Colleen Crawley