Today I visit Second Harvest Gleaners north of Grand Rapids or to be precise I follow up a tenuous lead from my first night in the US! Unable to sleep I was scanning the airwaves when I came upon an interview with John Arnold who runs the Michigan food bank, I got in touch with him and as a result of that spent two hours of mind blowing time this afternoon.
Firstly there is the problem. Surveys showed that despite the fact that Michigan is a fairly rural state its principal social problem is hunger with up to 60% of middle class families at risk as the economy dips.
Secondly there is the other problem. Food businesses in Michigan like food businesses in Britain have a huge amount of waste. Much of what they end up with as surplus ends up in landfill and costs the food industry a fortune.
Thirdly there is John Arnold standing in the middle with his food bank team… dealing with the food industry and taking their surpluses in an efficient way, dealing with faith communities and charities that try to feed the hungry by providing some of that surplus in a simple and cheap way.
He spent two hours explaining what, why and how they did it and I suggest you look at the website if you want the detail it’s going to take me a while to digest all that he gave me http://www.wmgleaners.org . Look especially at the scriptural material and the resources section.
What impressed me most is the story of how they scaled up their operation. They started small; with just John and a clipboard (he still uses it.) Knowing of the growing hunger crisis John rang round and was surprised to find that Michigan’s businesses were more than happy to donate their surplices, he ended up with too much stuff and so had to upscale his operation and work with the churches to increase their capacity too. Twenty five years later he contends that there is enough stuff to feed the poor, what stops it happening is that there aren’t enough providers and the ones providing are not doing it efficiently enough. Rather than despair he just keeps trying to make providers more “smart” in what they do. He has research to back up his approach and he’s given me the draft of his book so when I have digested it I’ll pass it on.
One thing they did which we could think about in Yorkshire is they operated what they called the mobile pantry which was a converted beer truck. This tours the villages and towns of rural Michigan and with a church’s assistance parks in its car parks and distributes free food to those who need it.
I can’t help thinking though it would be good to get him to Britain if I could. He has shown me some of the answers to the question I came to America to discover in the same way that Lyn Arnold answered some of the questions in Australia.
Firstly there is the problem. Surveys showed that despite the fact that Michigan is a fairly rural state its principal social problem is hunger with up to 60% of middle class families at risk as the economy dips.
Secondly there is the other problem. Food businesses in Michigan like food businesses in Britain have a huge amount of waste. Much of what they end up with as surplus ends up in landfill and costs the food industry a fortune.
Thirdly there is John Arnold standing in the middle with his food bank team… dealing with the food industry and taking their surpluses in an efficient way, dealing with faith communities and charities that try to feed the hungry by providing some of that surplus in a simple and cheap way.
He spent two hours explaining what, why and how they did it and I suggest you look at the website if you want the detail it’s going to take me a while to digest all that he gave me http://www.wmgleaners.org . Look especially at the scriptural material and the resources section.
What impressed me most is the story of how they scaled up their operation. They started small; with just John and a clipboard (he still uses it.) Knowing of the growing hunger crisis John rang round and was surprised to find that Michigan’s businesses were more than happy to donate their surplices, he ended up with too much stuff and so had to upscale his operation and work with the churches to increase their capacity too. Twenty five years later he contends that there is enough stuff to feed the poor, what stops it happening is that there aren’t enough providers and the ones providing are not doing it efficiently enough. Rather than despair he just keeps trying to make providers more “smart” in what they do. He has research to back up his approach and he’s given me the draft of his book so when I have digested it I’ll pass it on.
One thing they did which we could think about in Yorkshire is they operated what they called the mobile pantry which was a converted beer truck. This tours the villages and towns of rural Michigan and with a church’s assistance parks in its car parks and distributes free food to those who need it.
I can’t help thinking though it would be good to get him to Britain if I could. He has shown me some of the answers to the question I came to America to discover in the same way that Lyn Arnold answered some of the questions in Australia.
I wonder if Lyn and John are related?
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