Community Action House, Local Partners, WHTC
Nina Vestal
WHTC: Hunger Awareness Weekend

Tune into last week's WHTC Talk of the Town episode where our very own Assistant Director of Food Access, Chara Bouma-Prediger, and Annual Funds Manager Shanna Van Kempen speak on all of the events taking place this weekend during Holland's Hunger Awareness, and how you can get involved!

LFR

July '24 Lakeshore Food Rescue Update

Impact By The Numbers

June 2024

Pounds of food rescued - 314,622.10 lbs
Via LFR fleet and Food Rescue Hero

Pounds of food rescued at the Farmers Market - 6,505.5 lbs
Happening on every Saturday, since June 1, 2024

Pounds of food shared throughout our community- 182,177.00 lbs
Via LFR fleet and Food Rescue Hero

383.13 Tons of CO2eq* prevented from rescuing food
*includes transport to landfill, fugitive methane emissions, energy recovery offset, and landfill carbon storage

35 Food Rescue Drivers and 12 Farmers Market Volunteers
Rescued food through the Food Rescue Hero app or at the Market

135 Food Rescues Completed
Through the Food Rescue Hero app

Learn More About Food Rescue Volunteering!

Are you interested in learning more about Food Rescue volunteer opportunities with Action House? Join us for an in-person volunteer orientation. During orientation, you’ll learn how you can get involved and how you can help reduce food waste in our community!

Check Out The Food Rescue Hero App

Have you wondered what the Food Rescue Hero app is? And what it’s like to use it?

See what volunteers are saying about our Food Rescue Hero app!

‘Great first time experience. I really appreciate Joe showing me around the Community Action House Food pantry and food club. What an amazing program!’

‘So fun!’

‘Great instructions. No issues with the pickup.’

‘Went great. The food delivery recipient was pleased with the quality of the produce!’

Do you want to try the Food Rescue app or are you a volunteer in need of technical support? Check out the FRH App Technical Support resource on our Lakeshore Food Rescue webpage. Otherwise, please reach out to our team if your question is not there and we will work to answer it promptly!

Volunteer With Us at the Holland Farmers Market!

It’s summer time, which means our Holland Farmers Market is in full swing! As mentioned above, we’ve already received 6,505.5 lbs of food thanks to volunteers powering our market efforts! The farmers market is an essential part of our Lakeshore Food Rescue operations each summer, ensuring we’re capturing excess fresh, healthy produce that might otherwise go to waste, and making it available to those who need it most. We hope you’ll consider joining us as a volunteer this summer!

Join us as a gleaner! As a Volunteer Gleaner, you’ll help rescue produce that local farmers and vendors donate at the end of the Market. Collecting at the market wouldn’t be possible without volunteers powering gleaning each Saturday & we’re actively seeking volunteers to join this season’s Gleaning crew! 

Power our Produce Donation table! We provide a Produce Donation table on Wednesdays throughout the summer, powered by volunteers! As a volunteer, you’ll staff the booth, talk about Action House & LFR with interested individuals, accept and weigh produce donations, and clean up at the end of the day!

Please sign up to glean or collect produce with us this summer, or share the links above with your friends & family to help us spread the word. We’re thankful for our partnership with the Holland Farmers Market, and for the variety of opportunities to engage in the market throughout the summer. We’ll see you at the Market!

Want to get in contact with the Food Rescue Team?

Contact Joe (Food Rescue Coordinator & Volunteer Experience Champion) at jguzman@communityactionhouse.org

June '24 Lakeshore Food Rescue Update

Impact By The Numbers

May 2024

Pounds of food rescued - 316,148.30 lbs
Via LFR fleet and Food Rescue Hero

Pounds of food shared- 187,783.50 lbs
Via LFR fleet and Food Rescue Hero

36.40 million gallons of water saved*
*water used in the growing process, saved from being wasted!

31 Volunteer Drivers
Picked up food rescues through the Food Rescue Hero app

151 Rescues Completed
Through Food Rescue Hero

Join Us At The Holland Farmers Market

It’s summer time, which means our Holland Farmers Market is in full swing! Our local market is home to over 70 vendors throughout the summer, featuring vast amounts of fresh produce, flowers, baked goods, cheese, eggs, jams, and much more! Lakeshore Food Rescue actively participates in the market in a variety of ways throughout the summer, powered by volunteers. We hope you’ll consider joining us!

We’re now actively gleaning at the Farmers Market, and we invite you to join us as a Volunteer Gleaner! As a Volunteer Gleaner, you’ll help collect produce that local farmers and vendors donate at the end of the Market. Gleaning is an essential part of our Lakeshore Food Rescue operations each summer, ensuring we’re capturing excess fresh, healthy produce that might otherwise go to waste, and making it available to those who need it most. This wouldn’t be possible without volunteers powering gleaning each Saturday & we’re actively seeking volunteers to join this season’s Gleaning crew! 

We also provide a Produce Donation table on Wednesdays throughout the summer, powered by volunteers! As a volunteer, you’ll staff the booth, talk about Action House & LFR with interested individuals, accept and weigh produce donations, and clean up at the end of the day!

Please sign up to glean or collect produce with us this summer, or share the links above with your friends & family to help us spread the word. We’re thankful for our partnership with the Holland Farmers Market, and for the variety of opportunities to engage in the market throughout the summer. We’ll see you at the Market!

Thank You, Inontime!

Our friends at Inontime Transportation & Warehousing have been incredible partners of our food rescue efforts! Each week, their team transports 15,000 - 16,000 pounds of food to our Food Club, and assists with our community’s Mobile Food Pantry.

Recently, Inontime generously lended their unused truck space on a return trip from Detroit to Holland to transport rescued food from the Detroit area. 

Partnerships like these are what make a lasting impact and our work possible - it takes a huge network of support to make sure our neighbors have the healthy food they deserve. Thank you, Inontime, for showing up for our community!

Food Rescue Hero Technical Support

For any Food Rescue volunteers in need of technical support, please feel welcome to  access our Food Rescue Hero App Technical Support on our Lakeshore Food Rescue webpage. Otherwise, please reach out to our team if your question is not there and we will work to answer it promptly. 

LFR Volunteer in need of help?

Are you an LFR volunteer and need to get in touch? Contact Joe at jguzman@communityactionhouse.org

Lakeshore Food Rescue West Coast Way Feature

Our friends at the Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce highlighted Lakeshore Food Rescue in The West Coast Way magazine this month!

Lakeshore Food Rescue Manager, Krista, shared about our countywide expansion in 2023, our utilization of the nationally recognized Food Rescue Hero app, and how partners like Bowerman Blueberries Farm Market are joining the movement to end food waste and fight hunger in our community.

Read the West Coast Way article by visiting https://www.westcoastchamber.org/chamber-media-videos/ 

Holland Sentinel: Lakeshore Food Rescue

Lakeshore Food Rescue is a community-powered initiative of Community Action House, in partnership with Ottawa Food, the county’s food policy council. LFR works with partners across sectors to collect and redistribute excess food that would have otherwise gone to the landfill.

Designed to harness volunteer power and scale food recovery efforts, Community Action House is utilizing the Food Rescue Hero app, which has redirected 150 million pounds of food across the country since its launch in 2016! Lakeshore Food Rescue is seeking new food donors and nonprofit partners to utilize the app. Restaurants, grocery stores, farmers markets, government agencies, and other businesses can donate food quickly and easily online, submitting information that prompts volunteers to select a pickup through the Food Rescue Hero app. Nonprofit organizations can sign up to receive food, and the program is looking for agencies who can receive and distribute prepared food to guests.

You can read more from the Holland Sentinel article HERE!

Want to get started right away? Download the app right now!


WZZM: Lakeshore Food Rescue Launch!

As part of our recent Lakeshore Food Rescue program expansion, Community Action House is launching the local use of a nationally recognized food rescue app! The app will connect food donors to nonprofits, with a focus on keeping food local and close to its source.

Starting July 13, volunteers who download the app can sign up for flexible shifts, driving their own vehicles to recover food from donors and transport it to local food access partners. By recruiting individual volunteers, Lakeshore Food Rescue plans to expand across the county to rescue more food and increase healthy food access for the 10,000 individuals in the area who are food insecure.

“The Food Rescue Hero app will be a huge step forward for Lakeshore Food Rescue. By inviting individuals to volunteer with us, we can dramatically expand our service and offer fresh, healthy food to more partners across the county! Students can fill time in between classes, seniors can find meaningful structure for their retirement, and parents can show their kids the impact that individuals can make in our community.” - Krista Burgett, Lakeshore Food Rescue Manager

 
 

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