In Warren, just north of Detroit,
Gleaners Community Food Bank has broken ground on Fresh! by Gleaners, an innovative concept that will make free, fresh food available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to people living in Wayne and Macomb counties. The facility is set to open by early 2025.
Compared to most food pantries, which emphasize shelf-stable supplies like canned goods, Fresh! by Gleaners will offer perishable items like produce, milk, and eggs. Fresh! by Gleaners
will also create an environment similar to a traditional grocery store, where clients will be able to shop and choose the items they want.
"Produce, dairy, and milk are items that tend to be more expensive for families and you have to purchase them more frequently," says Kristin Sokul, Gleaners' senior director of advancement communications, marketing, and media/PR. "Not all households have the same access to those fresh foods that are nutrient-dense to support being able to thrive both physically and mentally, particularly for children. Kids are always growing their minds and bodies, so nutrition early in life is really important."
A 2018 visit to a food bank partner in Ohio first gave Julie Beamer, Gleaners' chief operating officer, the initial idea for the Fresh! by Gleaners market.
"I was really struck with the concept that they had for access to fresh perishable items," Beamer says. "It was a little different than our Fresh! concept, but it was embedded in a community, and offered that daily access to consumers, almost like a small-footprint urban produce market."
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Gleaners Community Food BankJulie Beamer.
The fresh food pantry is being built in Warren on Eight Mile Road, the border between Warren and Detroit. In developing the concept, Gleaners sought input from community members, schools, partner agencies, community organizations and leaders, local and county government, faith-based organizations, and donors. They learned what is important to those stakeholders, their needs and priorities, and their specific experiences.
"We took a very thoughtful and deliberate approach to engaging the community, getting feedback from them, and incorporating it," Beamer says. "Fresh! by Gleaners is really a supplement to the existing network, not in place of. It is a recognition of that need for more fresh foods and more frequent access."
Sokul says the approach of allowing clients to choose their own food helps promote healthier eating in two different ways.
"One, you choose what you're going to use, so food isn't going to waste," she says. "Two, it ensures that the foods that you're eating meet your dietary needs and cultural needs, whether it's for religious reasons or perhaps you have diabetes. And then there’s the dignity and respect that goes into being able to choose what you're eating."
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Gleaners Community Food BankKristin Sokul.
In addition to in-person shopping hours, the Fresh! by Gleaners
location will offer pre-order curbside pickup, a weather-protected drive-through area, and refrigerated lockers that will allow people to pick up their fresh foods any time of day or night.
"For a very long time, we have consistently heard from food-insecure families that they need more fresh produce and fresh dairy more frequently than they have access to through the current emergency food network," Beamer says. "We have one of the most robust fresh milk sourcing and distribution programs of any food bank in the country, distributing over 60,000 gallons of fresh milk to the community every month. But we continue to consistently hear that that is not enough."
More access for more households
Gleaners chose the Fresh! by Gleaners location based on residential population density and food insecurity rates. Nearly
90,000 people live within a three-mile radius of the Fresh! by Gleaners site and nearly 30% of them experience poverty. Of the 21,399 children living in the area, approximately 44% live in poverty.
Beamer expects that many households shopping Fresh! by Gleaners will also receive emergency food from other providers on a monthly or bi-weekly basis, but she hopes Fresh! by Gleaners will also reach households that are not currently being served for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the pantry hours don’t work with their work schedules, they can’t make it to appointments, or they don’t have transportation.
"When you think about ... those food-insecure households that the current network does not work for, Fresh! could provide fresh produce and fresh dairy to help them stretch their budgets," Beamer says.
Like other Gleaners programs, Fresh! by Gleaners will source foods from many local Michigan farms. The market will also rely on items purchased from outside of the state, especially outside of the Michigan growing season, and donated fresh items.
"We will be leveraging all of our sourcing options, but a lot of it will be purchased directly and specifically for Fresh!" Beamer says.
Because the concept itself is so fresh, Gleaners even has to develop a custom IT system to manage it.
"That is indicative of how innovative this is," Beamer says. "We're not aware of anyone else, anywhere in this space, that is executing as comprehensive a retail-grocery-like experience."
Expanding fresh food access throughout Michigan
Although the scale of Fresh! by Gleaners is unique, many organizations throughout Michigan are also innovating to make fresh food available to food-insecure Michiganders. Farmers markets take part in
SNAP and
Double Up Food Bucks programs that make fresh produce and dairy products accessible to people receiving food assistance dollars.
Produce prescription programs help people with diet-related disease.
The Farm at Trinity Health Ann Arbor grows produce for patients and others without access to fresh foods. More and more emergency food pantries are striving to include fresh foods alongside traditional shelf-stable items. For example, the Lakeshore Food Rescue
Fresh Fridges program has installed refrigeration systems at partner pantries throughout Ottawa County. Other nonprofits have established "fresh markets" where people without easy access to affordable fresh foods can purchase them at a healthy discount.
In Grand Rapids,
The Fresh Market at
United Methodist Community House (UMCH) offers fresh produce, meat, and dairy products in an income-challenged neighborhood with little access to affordable fresh foods. UMCH purchases fresh produce from
Green Wagon Farm,
Revolution Farms,
Visser Farms, and
New City Farm, an urban farm run by nonprofit New City Neighbors as well as from
Gordon Food Service, which also allows The Fresh Market to choose foods from other Michigan farms and dairies. The Fresh Market is currently open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and is a vendor at the Southeast Area Farmers Market every other Saturday.
"We are a grocery store. We look at Meijer and Walmart prices and match or go a little bit lower," says Raymond Warfield, UMCH food services manager and coordinator of The UMCH Fresh Market. "We offer a lot of discounts, depending on your wages, up to 30% additional off of our items."
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Estelle SlootmakerRaymond Warfield.
The UMCH Fresh Market gives neighbors an alternative to purchasing unhealthy foods at nearby liquor and gas station stores or traveling to the nearest big-box supermarkets, which are hours away via the city’s public transportation system.
"We are right in walking distance, a quick bike ride or on the Lime scooters," Warfield says. "We offer convenience [and] fresh produce from local farms. We do have sweet snacks and some salty things, but our headline is fresh produce and partnering with local farms and local distributors to get things at a local price."
Because UMCH Fresh Market is within a diverse community, shelves are stocked with items that appeal to many cultural palates. Warfield says the The Fresh Market's staff seek to "help families in any way that we can."
"If our produce is starting to go bad, we will double up on those orders," he says. "If someone comes and buys five lemons, I might give them eight just because I'd rather them use them than us toss them away."
Estelle Slootmaker spends most workdays as a journalist and book editor. She also writes poetry and has two books underway: her great great grandmother’s memoir of childhood on Mackinac Island and a children's picture book. You can contact her at [email protected].
Fresh! by Gleaners rendering and Gleaners staff photos courtesy of Gleaners Community Food Bank. Raymond Warfield photo by Estelle Slootmaker.