Moreover, the program has also expanded to include personal hygiene products, clothing, lightbulbs, and even pet food. The group has given out over 10 million meals in the last three years. “Our job is to empty these pallets with zero judgment, compassion and empathy.” People come from as far as Toledo, Ohio, and those without transportation show up with wagons, suitcases, laundry carts, and even wheelchairs to fill with groceries for the week. Wheeler says, on average, about 300 cars line up by 5 AM to collect goods from the pantry each week. Now, every Wednesday morning, whether it rains, shines, or snows, Wheeler and his army of volunteers gather at Ann Visger Preparatory Academy to put food in the hands of those who need it. “I said ‘we need to do more’,” he explained in an interview with CNN. Amid those deliveries, they learned something disheartening: many of the students they were delivering meals to had entire families who didn’t have enough food to eat. Derrick Coleman, began delivering meals to some of the students’ homes for what they called “We Love You Fridays” in hopes of keeping students engaged with the district. Wheeler and the district’s superintendent, Dr.
The idea for the food drive came when in-person classes were initially suspended for Covid in the spring of 2020. The district partnered with local food rescue non-profit Forgotten Harvest to start a mobile food drive, where every Wednesday, anyone can pick up groceries, no questions asked.
“It’s the working poor, the person that makes too much money to get help, but not enough to survive.” The district sits about ten miles outside Detroit. “The line was even longer yesterday,” said Tarence Wheeler, Director of Community Affairs at the River Rouge School District, the day after SNAP emergency allotments ended. “We have fewer donations, federal commodities have been significantly reduced and we have less money all across our network, while we’re seeing fewer and fewer donations from the public all at a time when people are still in need of help.”Ĭovid inspired creation of a metro-Detroit food pantry.
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