Make Food Not Waste organizes hundreds of meals for Detroiters

 

Citing increased need from families struggling to put food on the table, a local nonprofit is going into overdrive during the holidays. Make Food Not Waste is leading a team of chefs who will prepare 200 family meals that will serve 1,000 Detroiters. In addition, 500 breakfast and 500 dessert kits will be distributed.

“The problems we are facing right now are much bigger than any one of us can solve,” said Danielle Todd, executive director of Make Food Not Waste. “These meals prepared by local Detroit’s chefs are meant to bring a moment of happiness and sustenance that families can enjoy together during the holidays.”

Also in the project are Marygrove College, Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church, Hungry Harvest, Food Rescue US Detroit, Soil2Service and National Food Group, with chefs Phil Jones, Ederique Goudia, Shay Goudia, LeGenevieve Squires and Azzezah Ford.

This is the second meal program the nonprofit undertaken in the last month. For Thanksgiving, Make Food Not Waste prepared and distributed 5,000 meals.

In October, the Detroit Food Policy Council (DFPC) received a $1 million grant and launched Food Secure Detroit with at least eight nonprofit organizations to address food insecurity in the short and long term. The program is a direct outcome of the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities that was created by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in April. The task force, chaired by Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, focused on the disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 cases in the African American community. At the time, 40 percent of the COVID-19 deaths were African Americans.

A 2017 report by DFPC found that 1 in 5 people in Wayne County experience limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods at some point during the year. Feeding America has listed Michigan as one of the 10 states where food insecurity is expected to rise the most because of the virus.

Make Food Not Waste helps inspire home cooks to waste less and create lasting solutions to wasted food. For more information, go to https://www.makefoodnotwaste.org/. The Detroit Food Policy Council works to shape policy designed to address food sustainability and racial inequity. For more information about Food Secure Detroit or the DFPC, go to https://www.detroitfoodpc.org/.

Notice Posted: December 2020