Michigan Rugby has recently become a partner with Food Gatherers, an organization in Ann Arbor that provides hot meals, healthy snacks, and groceries to low-income adults, seniors, and at risk youth in Washtenaw County. 1,500 volunteers, including members of the Michigan Rugby Football Club, volunteer to prepare over 100,000 meals to struggling individuals each year. As volunteers, we sort through the thousands of pounds of food that are donated to Food Gatherers every week. We separate expired items out of the pile, and organize breads by their type, fruits and vegetables into a separate pile, and non perishables into a final pile. Food Gatherers also receives delectable items such as cakes, pies, muffins, and chocolates from donors. Although Food Gatherers is committed to serving the at risk people in our community with healthy meal options, we can all agree that sometimes a palatable and non-nutritious dessert is necessary ever’ so often.
Food gatherers receives these items from local sources such as restaurants, food wholesalers, and grocery stores which include Whole Foods, Plum Market, and Kroger to name a few. The food rescued by food gatherers would have otherwise gone to waste and decayed in landfills across the state of Michigan. Food gatherers is such an interesting organization in that it partners with these local sources to decrease their carbon footprint by reducing the landfill pile up of food while feeding people in our community that desperately need, but cannot afford, nutritious food options. According to foodgatherers.com, 88% of clients Food Gatherers serve had fallen into the maladaptive practice of buying inexpensive and unhealthy food because of a lack of money and a lack of access to healthy food. Michigan Rugby is excited to continue partnering with Food Gatherers to attack the problem of inaccessibility to healthy food in low income communities, and attack the carbon emission issue that food waste causes.
Go blue!
