Services

Yad Ezra, JARC and Gleaners Community Food Bank Launch Fresh Food to the Door Program

The 'Fresh Food to the Door' program is a new program that Yad Ezra, JARC and Gleaners Community Food Bank have embarked on to benefit vulnerable Jewish families living in southeastern Michigan. Leadership from the three agencies have collaborated on a program that provides qualifying JARC residents with monthly food deliveries from Yad Ezra, supplemented with additional available fresh produce and other kosher foods from Gleaners at no cost to either JARC or Yad Ezra. Produce may include apples, carrots and other healthy Michigan grown produce.

Yad Ezra, JARC and Gleaners' core missions address the needs of vulnerable families in southeastern Michigan. This collaborative effort provides the agencies with the ability to expand their efforts to execute their organizations' missions. People living in JARC homes are receiving healthy, free food packages of their choosing. JARC residents and Yad Ezra clients are the beneficiaries of larger quantities of additional free Michigan grown produce from Gleaners that the food bank needs and wants to distribute in a timely manner. Food for this project is being donated and also purchased from wholesale and below wholesale cost vendors, resulting in each participant receiving two or three times the food they could get through retail purchases alone. All this food is kosher and meets the participants' cultural needs as well as their need for more food. JARC is able to save funds previously dedicated to food purchases and use them instead for other areas of needed support for those with developmental disabilities. The program is a win/win for Yad Ezra and JARC families and the three agencies dedicated to serving those who are vulnerable in our community.

Both Yad Ezra and JARC are covering the overhead expenses (time, supervision, filling out food requests, packaging the orders, etc.) to operate the program at this time. The first month's delivery yielded almost 1,500 pounds of food and 200 pounds of toiletry items for 95 residents living in 19 JARC homes. Future plans include growing the program to include other agencies in the Jewish community that would benefit from the 'Fresh Food to the Door' program.