(audience cheers and applauds)
- We are back with Craig Robinson.
Y'all, give it up.
(audience cheers and applauds)
So this season, we have been asking
local news reporters to share their most moving stories
of people making a difference in their communities.
It's my favorite segment, y'all.
It's all part of our search for a good neighbor of the year.
(upbeat music)
♪ Good, good, so good ♪
♪ Good neighbor of the year ♪
- Pretending I'm Jesse.
And it's you, the viewers
who are gonna ultimately choose your favorite.
Today we are heading to the city of Detroit
where one organization is making sure no one
in Motor City is going hungry.
And joining us is WXYZ Seven Action News anchor,
Carolyn Clifford from our Detroit partner
along with the interim CEO
of Forgotten Harvest, Lorna
and the founder, Nancy.
Y'all, give it up for 'em.
(audience cheers and applauds)
So welcome to the show, y'all.
Meet Craig, everybody say hi.
- Yes, hi, Craig. - Hi.
- So Carolyn, I have to ask you
what stands out to you about Forgotten Harvest?
- Oh my goodness.
Forgotten Harvest is such a wonderful,
wonderful nonprofit in our community.
I think last year they fed
one million people in our community.
That's a lot, a lot of people.
And you know, when you think about the city of Detroit
and the Metro Detroit area,
there's a lot of poverty going on.
I think one in five families is food insecure,
meaning they can't put dinner on the table at times.
I was born and raised in the city of Detroit,
the youngest of nine kids.
I don't even know how my mom fed all of us.
And she would never turn anyone away
if they came to our door for food,
she'd put a big pot of spaghetti on the stove
or a big pot of chicken noodles on the stove
and that sort of thing.
But they rescued like 42 million pounds of food last year.
Meaning, yes.
(audience cheers and applauds)
- Rescued, meaning it didn't go to waste.
- Right, meaning they went to grocery stores
and restaurants and got the food
that would've gone in the trash
and brought it back to our community.
And I'm just so grateful to work
for a station like Channel Seven
and a company like Scripps that really cares
about community service and giving back.
I mean, I've been in the community,
covering Forgotten Harvest.
I've been at their food drives
and especially during the pandemic
I saw lines around the block
and people would literally cry
when they'd get that free box of food
because it means so much.
So I just thank God that we have them in our community
and making such a difference and we just play a small part.
(audience cheers and applauds)
- It's cool too, like what you said too
in not letting things go to waste.
There's so much waste that could help people.
That's incredible that y'all found a way
to accomplish both things.
So Nancy, you came up with this
after experiencing your own food insecurity, right?
- I did.
I was a young mother, divorced.
I had a baby, two years old
and I had not finished my education
and I was struggling to feed us.
And it was a very painful, humiliating
and frightening experience
standing in line, waiting for food assistance.
And at that moment I thought to myself,
if I ever got out of that situation
someday I would go back and help the other people
who I was standing in line with.
And then years later when I had more
than two pair of shoes in my closet,
I was raising three children.
Was time to fulfill the promise to myself.
And so I started going around to restaurants
and caterings and putting food in my Jeep
and driving it to soup kitchens and shelters.
And about a year and a half later,
I was given, anonymously, a refrigerated van
to augment my work
and that was the birth of Forgotten Harvest.
I brought a board of directors together
and started setting goals
and I'd hoped to put a thousand meals a month
on the tables of people in need.
And we achieved that goal in six months
and then the organization just started to grow
and then this incredible thing happened.
We decided to have a fundraiser
and we decided to do a comedy night.
And we asked an up and coming comedian
who had a brand new TV show if he would maybe,
he was from Detroit,
maybe he would do this comedy night for us.
Who was it?
Tim Allen.
- Oh my-- (ladies laugh)
Oh my gosh.
- And so, he raised enough money to to buy a second truck.
The next year, he did it again and we had a third truck
and then it just started to roll from there
and we went from that, those beginnings
to now just covering three counties
and feeding 750,000 people.
- That has to feel incredibly rewarding
since you were one of those people at one point.
Like, my family, actually there were times
when we were young and we didn't have anything.
So I totally get that.
Did you ever grow up around anybody, Craig,
that food insecurity issues or anything like that?
- Yeah, I know a few people for sure.
- Yeah.
It's sad 'cause it's one of those things
where it's like, this should not be the discussion, right?
There's plenty to go around.
So it's incredible that even the foresight
to go, "Man, there's so much waste here
"with these catering companies, with these restaurants."
And to gather that and just do it on your own at first
and look what it's become.
That's incredible.
- It is.
- Like what amazing footprints,
what a legacy to leave behind.
It's an incredible thing you're doing.
I just wanna applaud you for that.
- Yay.
- So, Lorna, explain more about
how Forgotten Harvest works.
How does it play out?
- Well, from the time food is harvested
to gets to your refrigerator, 40% of that food is wasted.
And so that's like 70 billion pounds a year
in this country that goes to waste.
So--
- Which we are all guilty of.
- Yes, we certainly are. - Yeah, yeah.
- So forgotten Harvest, my amazing team in Detroit
collects that food, brings it back to the warehouse,
repacks it and gets it to our pantry partners
and our mobile pantry units, all for free.
We have 50 trucks
covering the three county area of Metro Detroit.
We also have a farm.
We harvest on a hundred acre farm.
- [Kelly] That's incredible.
- [Lorna] Yep, potatoes, tomatoes, collard greens
sweet corn and much, much more.
- And our food is all fresh.
- Right, right.
- It's the fresh, nutritious food that people need
so that they stay healthy
and don't have-- - And mentally healthy.
- Absolutely and kids can thrive in school.
It's not boxed and canned goods
like you see in a food bank.
This is not a food bank, it's fresh food.
- It's food rescue.
- Food rescue.
- Yeah and it makes a huge difference in people's lives.
- Obviously.
I mean the stats prove that.
Absolutely.
- I mean some kids even in the Detroit area, right
they only go home eating lunch.
- Right. - That's right.
- And if not
for Forgotten Harvest - Or we send things.
Right.
- They wouldn't have food.
- Yeah, we send things home with them as well.
- In the last 30 years, Forgotten Harvest
has distributed more than 35 million meals
to those in need in Detroit, incredible.
Not long ago they opened a huge distribution center
and we have Carolyn's colleague,
WXYZ Seven Action News reporter,
Simon Shaykhet there right now.
Hi, Simon.
How you doing?
- Good, Kelly.
Great to see you.
And what an amazing place this is.
Truly a labor of love.
You can see these hardworking volunteers
filling these boxes for families.
This is a 78,000 square foot facility.
20,000 volunteers since 2021
and they are packaging up,
processing 178,000 pounds of food on a daily basis.
And I am so excited to introduce you
to Krista and Damari and Derek, her children.
And Krista, this is near and dear to your heart.
Talk to me about how you first got started
with Forgotten Harvest.
- Absolutely.
So 15 years ago I lost my job.
I was working in the mortgage industry
and I found myself in a situation where,
you know, when you're in poverty
and you're deep down in it
you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
At the time, I had a uncle
that was a driver for Forgotten Harvest
and he told me about one of our agencies
that we partner with.
And initially when I found out about the organization,
I wanted to just volunteer.
It wasn't until I started going to those agencies
that I was just thrilled at the type
and the quality of food that I was able to receive.
- And now, as a client service manager,
what does this place mean to you, aside from the food?
- So I found Forgotten Harvest 'cause I needed food
but what I found was a family.
I am now the client services manager
and now I have a chance to help
all the other Kristas out here
that's in need of help.
- And I wanna ask Damari too,
now being a part of an organization giving back
after receiving the help,
what does that mean to you?
- It means a lot.
Forgotten Harvest did so much for me and my family,
especially when I was younger and we was in poverty
and because of that I love volunteering
and giving back to the community.
I remember volunteering at a farm,
picking green beans and packing them
and it just feels good to help people in need.
- And there's so much work to be done.
What about you?
What is the most fun part of being involved in this?
- Picking apples at the apple orchard.
- [Kelly] Aw.
- That is fun.
And Krista, one other thing I want to ask you.
Talk to us about Nancy,
there's something that you'd like to share.
A very important message.
- So Nancy, you are so special to me.
First of all, I love you.
You were deep down in it and I know how that feels.
But you had the mental capacity
and the awareness to come and help those people
that you once stood in line with.
You and forgotten Harvest, you all saved my lives
and I know that you are saving the lives
of so many in the community
and I just wanna say a great big thank you, Nancy.
You are amazing and I love you.
- Kelly.
- Oh my gosh.
I know, I'm like crying.
You were smart.
You brought a tissue.
Volunteers are such a vital part
of many community initiatives.
How much is that?
Doing this whole, I just saw, look at that place.
That's filled with volunteers.
And I think what's important though,
is, we were talking about this too before,
in the commercial break.
Like, it's so important to get this message out.
That people wanna help, they just dunno how
and that's my favorite segment that we're doing
because we're crossing all over the country
and everybody can find their own spot,
their own place where they can help out.
So if people aren't near you, how can they help?
Is there like a website?
Like how can they donate?
- They can donate forgottenharvest.org.
It's very simple.
And we appreciate all the donations financially
because the food is freed, but moving it around
and getting it to the right places is not.
So we need the support from anyone that is willing to give.
- Well, it's incredible that this idea came from you
and now this whole village and this community
backing this whole place.
That's an
incredibly cool thing. - It's a community.
It is the community, really.
The community has come together
under the umbrella of Forgotten Harvest.
It's schools and corporations and civic organizations
and individuals and we all come together.
It's not any one person.
Every single person makes a difference.
And as a whole community,
we are really getting the job done.
- Absolutely.
Well, we reached out to our friends at Conagra
a Feeding America leadership partner.
They're so impressed with the millions
and millions of meals that you've provided across Detroit.
So they're donating $10,000 to Forgotten Harvest.
- Yay!
Who-hoo! (audience cheers and applauds)
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
- No, I can't say this enough.
It's so cool what y'all are doing for your community.
It's so important that you're highlighting it.
- Yes.
- It's so important that we're highlighting
people like this.
Thank y'all so much.