From Warehouse to Table

Food Gatherers Keeps Washtenaw County Fed as 1 in 7 Face Food Insecurity

If you’ve spent any time in the Washtenaw County area, you’ve seen the Food Gatherers trucks around town–they’re a ubiquitous presence all over, every day. Food Gatherers is the largest food bank and food rescue program in Washtenaw County, distributing over 10.3 million pounds of food–about 8.5 million meals–to over 140 partner agencies in just the last year. Established in 1988, they are also Michigan’s first food rescue program and among the first six in the entire nation.

The large fleet of Food Gatherers trucks goes out twice each day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. They leave the Food Gatherers warehouse filled with food to distribute to partner agencies, drop the food off, and then on their way back to the warehouse, they refill the trucks with donated or rescued food, which they get from “pretty much everywhere.” Rescued food is usually food from grocery stores that is past its “best buy” or “sell by” date, but which is still healthy to consume. These dates indicate peak quality, but there are different guidelines for evaluating when a food is still safe to consume. The USDA estimates that 30 percent of the food supply is lost or wasted at the retail and consumer levels, so by rescuing these foods, Food Gatherers can both feed the community and prevent massive amounts of food waste.

Food Gatherers focuses on rescuing food that is both high in demand and provides the biggest nutritional benefit, as well as foods that are shelf-stable and will last longer for their distribution partners. Over 60% of the foods they distribute are produce or high-protein items like meats, eggs, and dairy products. After the food has been rescued, a vast force of volunteers sorts through the food to make sure that it is all still safe to be distributed to the community: that nothing has broken its seal or been punctured, that the produce is in good shape, and that everything is still within the date extension guidelines (a certain amount of time after the “best by” date). They do this work immediately to make sure the perishable food gets distributed as quickly as possible, and sort the food into boxes to make it easier to deliver to partner agencies–including making tailored halal boxes for partner agencies serving the Muslim community.

Food Gatherers distributes through a vast network of over 140 partner agencies, 40-50 of which are “open sites” such as food pantries and the remainder of which are “closed sites” such as school pantries and housing complexes. Many of these partnerships go back many decades, and Food Gatherers provides the material support while allowing the agencies to make their own internal decisions about what and how to distribute. Food Gatherers is also intentional about making sure that through their network of partner agencies, they are reaching all portions of the county–both urban and rural–which are reported as experiencing food insecurity.

Because of this vast network of partnerships, any cuts to Food Gatherers' funding affect the entire county. Historically, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has played a major role in funding food assistance programs throughout the country. In March, however, the USDA canceled about $4.3 million in food orders to Michigan, equating to more than 2 million meals. Food Gatherers estimates that their organization alone lost 1.2 million meals from these cuts–meals which will cost them about $2.5 million to replace. The program, which was cut, the Emergency Food Assistance Program, focused on providing high-quality, nutritious food such as produce and dairy items. So, although Food Gatherers is still receiving some federal funding, they have been working hard to make up the gap caused by recent cuts. So far, they have been able to, thanks to generous support from donors and our local government.

The recent changes to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) in the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” don’t affect Food Gatherers directly, but they will cause increased need throughout the county as more Washtenaw County residents lose their benefits due to more time limits on benefits and greatly increased paperwork requirements, which many people find difficult to navigate. Food insecurity in Washtenaw County has already been rising, from 12.5% to 14%, meaning that one in seven residents lacks reliable access to nutritious food. Food Gatherers saw a sharp uptick in need when COVID-era SNAP benefits were withdrawn, and they anticipate a similarly sharp uptick in need with the upcoming changes to SNAP. According to Feeding America, for every meal that food banks supply, SNAP supplies nine; organizations like Food Gatherers and their partner agencies are meant to be supplemental to food assistance programs like SNAP–not a replacement.

Food Gatherers won’t be able to fill all the gaps in food access that will come from reduced SNAP benefits, but they expect to be able to continue providing the level of services they have historically been able to. They will continue to distribute record amounts of nutritious food through their agency partners, rescue and distribute food which would otherwise be wasted, conduct community outreach to connect with community members and help them access services, and raise general community awareness through food drives. Even as the terrain of food access becomes increasingly difficult to navigate, community members should have confidence that our local food pantries will continue to be well-provisioned by the incredible work that Food Gatherers is able to carry out.

The essential services that Food Gatherers provides would not be possible without the incredible support they receive from the Washtenaw community in the form of volunteer hours, monetary donations, and food donations. In 2024, over 4,100 volunteers dedicated over 53,000 hours of their time to sort and pack food, go on food runs, cook and serve meals at the Food Gatherers Community Kitchen located in the Delonis Center in Ann Arbor, and help with the Summer Food Service Program, which ensures that families have access to food even when school is out. As more and more federal funding and support are cut for food access programs, it is more important than ever that our local communities show up to support programs like these at the local government level and in our actions as members of the community.

This post is part of a series by Emma Rose Hardy, a PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan and the Rackham Local Food Systems Intern at Growing Hope. The series aims to highlight the essential role that SNAP and other food assistance programs play in the Washtenaw County local food system.

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Rooted Again: A National Farmers Market Week Reflection

By Julius Buzzard • August 1, 2026

Beloved community, As we enter the final weeks of summer and back into the rhythm of the school year, it’s impossible not to recognize how hard it’s been to breathe as of late (in every sense). A few short weeks ago, smoke drifted down from wildfires burning across Ontario and settled over Southeast Michigan with force. As air quality alerts stacked on top of heat advisories, everyone from youth to elders was advised to mask up or otherwise remain indoors. In the same stretch, Michigan’s cyclospora outbreak kept climbing past six thousand confirmed cases. Understandably, many have been left feeling paralyzed. Clean air and safe food are not amenities; they are the foundation on which we build food sovereignty. Right now, it feels like that foundation is beginning to crumble, and crumble beneath some more than others. The folks breathing the worst air and eating the least trustworthy food are disproportionately Black, brown, Indigenous, low-income, elderly, young, or some combination of all of it. This pattern is known as environmental racism, meaning the way pollution, contamination, and environmental harm land hardest on communities of color and low-income communities. Whether it’s a decision about a permit, protective rights, or a pipeline, this happens by design. Last month, for example, Michigan's environmental agency approved permits allowing Enbridge to build a new tunnel for the Line 5 pipeline under the Straits of Mackinac, locking in another 99 years of fossil fuel infrastructure running beneath the largest freshwater system on the planet. While this devalues, or even ignores, the long-term health of our climate, economies, and water (another foundational element to life), the environmental harm of this decision is just the tipping point. Construction threatens ground that includes Native American burial sites, and tribes are being handed what one Native American Rights Fund attorney representing Bay Mills Indian Community called an agonizing choice between digging up and recovering their own ancestors before bulldozers arrive, or leaving that work to the state once construction starts. That same attorney, David Gover, put it plainly: "What is more sacred than how we treat our dead?" The grief, rage, and anxiety showing up in our community as a result of these compounding factors is real, merited, and inextricably tied to what’s happening to the land, water, and air on which we, and our food, depend. But it’s not the end of the story. Behind Growing Hope's mission is a strongly rooted belief that communities deserve autonomy within the entirety of their food system. You cannot separate a just food system from a just relationship to place. The cure to systems that poison our air, contaminate our food chains, and desecrate sacred ground is hope that is deeply seeded in community. It's in building a local food system that celebrates the growers, land stewards, and makers that paint a portrait of a vibrant local food system. And that's what a farmers market is, when you get down to it. It's a supply chain you can see with your own eyes. It’s names you know and fields you can visit. It’s fresh produce that arrives from caring hands just moments away from home. It's food grown by people accountable to this community. And when we feel betrayed by the very air and food we need to survive, this is all more important than ever. That’s why I’m excited that this is reaching you right on the edge of National Farmers Market Week, August 2-8, formally proclaimed by the Ypsilanti City Council at their last meeting. Come join us in our weekly celebration of local food at the Ypsilanti Farmers Markets on Saturdays, 9a-1p, at the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace (16 S. Washington St.) Underneath all of it (the smoke, the cyclospora headlines, the pipeline permits) is us. A community vying for a food system where we can gather, cook, and grow together without fear. See you at the market, Julius P.S. Even if you can’t join us to celebrate National Farmers Market Week on Saturday, August 8, you can share your thoughts and help us plan for the future (even get entered to win a great prize) by completing our annual market survey .

From Dream to Legacy

By Julius Buzzard • July 1, 2026

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Return of the Tuesday Market

By Julius Buzzard • June 1, 2026

Beloved community, June is alive in Ypsilanti, and so are we! The farm is buzzing with pollinators, heavy with the first fruits of the season, keeping the produce cart full, and tended by caring hands, sowing hope along with each seed. At the same time, the MarketPlace is filling back up with color and noise with the joy of neighbors who have looked forward to the market all winter. We have so much to celebrate this season! Namely, the Tuesday Farmers Market is back! Starting tomorrow (June 2), the Ypsilanti Farmers Market will run not only on Saturday mornings, but also every Tuesday from 3 to 7 pm, through August, right here at the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace. That means every week we’ll have two opportunities to invest in our local food system while building the community care that makes a market special. This matters more than it might seem on the surface. Many community members have shared that while they love the Ypsilanti Farmers Market, want to support local farmers and makers, and believe in local food, Saturday mornings simply do not work for their lifestyles. Saturday mornings may be reserved for overtime shifts or soccer games, or to recover from a week that didn’t seem to give anything back. For some, they can only get the financial assistance or translation services needed to fully participate on a weekday. For many of our neighbors, Saturday mornings are simply not free. Access can only be actualized when every community member experiences it. It’s as much about time as it is about proximity. We've always said that the Ypsilanti Farmers Market is for everyone in our community, and the Tuesday market is our effort to live that out more fully. The Ypsilanti Farmers Market, in each step toward the future, is a step toward a living vision we have built together. Toward a vision of the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace as a community food hub, an anchor in the life of our city and of our local food system. A place where neighbors come together, build community, and leave united; all while gathering around food. The Ypsilanti Farmers Market is not purely about simple transactions. It’s about practicing what it looks like for a community to feed itself. It nurtures spaces where farmers can move their harvest and where small businesses can grow. The Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace is fostering that mid-week run-in with a neighbor, reminding us that we are not alone. We are grateful to the farmers, vendors, and partners who said yes to this. And we are grateful to our entire market team, who make it possible week after week, with devotion and creativity that continues to humble me. This spring, our Teen Leadership Program launched our second Seed Library, located at the Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace, which is available to the community at every market. Because everyone deserves a chance to grow. Seeds hold within them the agricultural knowledge of generations, the food traditions of all of humankind. When we talk about seed sovereignty, we are not simply speaking about the practical reality of who controls the global seed supply (the four corporations that control 60% of the seed and pesticide supply). Rather, it goes a level deeper into the question of who and what gets to be remembered. "Farmers are literally archivists of the land." -Abena Offeh-Gyimah Seeds are stories. They are living reminders of all the ancestors who walked before us. When we save and share seeds, we are practicing reciprocity with Mother Earth, and with one another. The seed library that our teens built is just the beginning. Our hope is that it grows into a circular system . We dream of a future where the seed library at the farm and MarketPlace are filled with self-labeled packets of seeds saved from the harvest of our community. We dream of a food future that sits in the hands of the very community that tends it. This is seed rematriation in practice, and I’m excited to grow with you. In solidarity, Julius P.S. Your support makes this food system possible, whether it is financial, volunteer, or saving seeds; we’re in this together. Keep an eye out for future newsletters for a hands-on seed-saving workshop later this year.

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