Forgotten Harvest to celebrate new Oak Park distribution center with community open house

What’s happening: A community open house is planned for this Saturday, May 21, celebrating the new distribution center and warehouse for the Forgotten Harvest nonprofit organization. It’s no surprise that Forgotten Harvest wants to celebrate its new facility with the community as it’s the community that the organization serves. Forgotten Harvest rescues surplus food that would otherwise go to waste and distributes it to more than 200 emergency food providers throughout the region, serving more than 600,000 people each year.

The new Forgotten Harvest distribution center is located at 15000 W. Eight Mile Rd. in Oak Park.The building: The new-build distribution center and warehouse welcomed its first employees in February 2022, this after a November 2020 groundbreaking. Located on 8 Mile Road in Oak Park, the facility clocks in at 78,000 sq. ft., which is 48,000 sq. ft. larger than its previous facility on Greenfield Road in Oak Park. Upgrades include expanded truck docks, from two to 15; expanded refrigerated and frozen storage areas, processing and repack areas, and administrative offices; and the ability to accommodate up to 90 million pounds of rescued food, up from 35 million pounds at the old facility.

Why it matters: Forgotten Harvest’s rescued food volume has quadrupled since 2007 and the organization has assessed that community needs are close to 70 million pounds of food per year. The new facility will help Forgotten Harvest meet those needs, offering more storage and service space, increased and more efficient distribution services, and more. The organization currently delivers nearly 200,000 pounds of surplus food per day to local charities each week.

[Read “Forgotten Harvest increases its hunger-fighting efforts for metro Detroit families” as part of the Nonprofit Journal Project.]

What they’re saying: “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,” says Forgotten Harvest CEO Kirk Mayes. “We’re thrilled to have such increased capacity at our new building to help thousands more people.”

Open house: To take a peek at the new state-of-the-art facility and learn more about the Forgotten Harvest mission, a community open house is planned from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, at 15000 W. Eight Mile Rd. in Oak Park.

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