Food Gatherers Announces Record Year of Food Distribution in Washtenaw County

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ANN ARBOR – Food Gatherers announced this week that they have distributed a record amount of food to community members in need during the 2020-2021 fiscal year.

In total, the Washtenaw County Food Rescue Organization distributed more than 9 million pounds of food, breaking the previous year’s record of 7.8 million pounds of food. This year’s amount is equivalent to 7.5 million meals.

Shortly after the coronavirus pandemic hit Michigan in March 2020, Food Gatherers said its partner agencies reported a 30 to 300 percent increase in visitor numbers. Almost half of these visitors had never had to search for emergency food before.

“We’ve never seen anything like it, there has been a drastic increase in the number of people needing help, and at the same time the pandemic has forced us to completely rethink every aspect of our service model,” said Eileen Spring, President and CEO of Food Gatherers. declaration in October 2020.

According to Food Gatherers, there are currently 42,450 food insecure people in Washtenaw County, and 6,090 children in the county live in food insecure households.

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Spring said she was grateful to the organization’s team and their supporters for being able to fulfill their mission of reducing hunger during a global pandemic.

“We are very grateful to our community partners and our Food Gatherers team for adjusting and persevering in the face of the many challenges we all faced during the pandemic,” Spring said in a statement.

“We hope that the heightened awareness of food insecurity will lead to a better understanding of the importance of federal nutrition and poverty reduction programs. We invite you to find out more on our website, www.foodgatherers.org/advocate.

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