OAK PARK – Forgotten Harvest celebrated its new 78,000 square foot distribution center and warehouse over the weekend with a community open house, Saturday. The new building located on at 15000 West Eight Mile Road in Oak Park will help create better health and quality of life for many people across metro-Detroit.
“We’ve been really good over the years finding a lot of partners and receiving a lot of food from many different places and doing our best to get a good nutritious mix out to the community, said Kirk Mayes, CEO of Forgotten Harvest.
Amid a reported food shortage and economic challenge for so many people, Mays understand the importance of the investment their making is critical. “What this facility will allow us to do, is actually bring everything we get on a daily basis back to this centralized location and implement a new operational model.”
The newly-constructed facility will make for improved operations and processing for more rescued food from major food manufactures and restaurants that would otherwise go unused, but still good to store prep, and distribute to the community for consumption.
“We have over 105 agencies that consist of churches, soup kitchens, and shelters, and they are the ones that distributes the food to the community,” said Krista Poole, Client Service Manager at Forgotten Harvest. Poole works with the agencies which help distribute the food to families. She knows what it’s like to be appreciative of this much-needed service after she was once on the receiving end of it. “I know the impact in-house once the food gets there. I loss my job and I went to one of our agencies, so it’s super rewarding and I love it.”
The new building will help create better health and quality of life annual outcomes for the 610,000+ children, families, and seniors Forgotten Harvest serves throughout southeastern Michigan, helping those who live in urban areas such as Detroit and Pontiac, as well as many suburban and rural communities. In 2021, Forgotten Harvest made more than 1 million distributions to metro Detroiters in need. The new building is 48,000 square feet larger than its previous building.
“What makes Forgotten Harvest unique for clients at critical risk of hunger in metro Detroit is that we use advanced logistics to rescue surplus, highly perishable, nutritious food from retailers, distributors, and growers, then share it free of charge with a comprehensive network over 200 food pantry and shelter partners,” said Mayes. “We’re thrilled to have such increased capacity at our new building to help thousands more people.”
With all the new additional capacity, Forgotten Harvest can now do so much more for thousands of people who risk hunger, work in which Mayes understands he doesn’t accomplish alone.
“The hearts of the people have always been in a place where we try to do the most we can for the community. My role just adds a little bit of seasoning to take us over the edge.”
Some of the new features include expanded truck docks-from 2 to 15 to accommodate the entire fleet of 37 trucks. The facility will also have a 90 million pound capacity whereas the current rescued pounds will grow to approximately 55 million pounds by 2023 and 70 million pounds by 2028.
There is also a ground-level agency pick up door for partners. Also on the inside, an expansive refrigerated and freezer food storage, five levels of rack storage, and large food processing and repack areas, and administrative offices. Forgotten Harvest hopes to enhance the volunteer experience and make more efficient use of volunteer support with multiple sort lines creating greater throughput and more volunteer opportunities.
The new campus and distribution center was a pillar in Forgotten Harvest’s strategic plan because of the restrictions at its former facility on Greenfield Road in Oak Park.
The new building was constructed from the ground up after groundbreaking on Nov. 1, 2020. The first staff members moved into it in February 2022.
Forgotten Harvest delivers almost 200,000 pounds of surplus food daily to local charities five days a week, providing families in need with fresh and nutritious food free of charge.