Following the success of the Royal Oak Professional Firefighters Local 431 food giveaway, the city has received numerous phone calls for food help from individuals throughout Metro Detroit. While the firefighter’s giveaway was a one-day event, our friends at Forgotten Harvest are there you almost daily with multiple mobile food pantries throughout the the tri-county area. Please read the follwoing.
A Message from Forgotten Harvest: We encourage people to click on Forgotten Harvest (FH) “Response to COVID-19 at https://www.forgottenharvest.org/COVID19/. Scroll down to reach a section titled “If You Need Food” (green text), which lists this week’s large mobile pantries’ locations and times of service. Click on the specific dates; details for the sites of our large mobile pantries will drop-down. The pantries in orange text are the new mobile pantries that FH has added in response to covid; at these sites, FH is providing food service directly to people facing need. The green text sites are our continuing partner agency mobile pantry sites.
For the mobile pantry distributions: We have learned that people arrive in line quite early. (Our semi-trucks arrive about 1 hr before distribution is scheduled to start.) All distribution is done directly into back of autos; grocery boxes will be placed into trunk or hatch, so people should plan in advance to have adequate space. This assures 6-feet social distance and minimum contact between pantry guests and our team. In addition, FH distributes pre-packed packages of 5 lunches for each child in households. We distribute food until it runs out.
We urge people to recheck this section daily before visiting a site for the most current information; we update this site as soon as there are any changes in time or location. These sites are experiencing very long lines but are designed to move efficiently.
To find all of FH’s traditional partner agencies that are currently providing ongoing service, FH encourages people to visit its website: www.forgottenharvest.org; click on the “Partners & Agencies” tab at the top of the home page; then scroll down to the “Find Our Agency Partners” section. This website is updated every day. As always and particularly now, Forgotten Harvest encourages people to check this website before going to a site, because pantries are making last minute changes in their regular services during this time. Some sites are returning to service as suspending their food distributions at the start of the pandemic.