Redford Interfaith Relief began in the summer of 1997 as a collaborative effort initiated, by members of the Redford Clergy Association, (now referred to as the Redford Ministerial Alliance) for the purpose of Interfaith Outreach to meet the needs of the community.  A steering committee was formed with participants strongly committed to this project.  “It is our belief that easing the pain of hunger will help heal the spirit".

Annually our board of Directors evaluates our programs and new programs have been added to meet the needs of the community as we have increased our resources.  RIR has found that most of the people we see do not just need food; they need a variety of other services to improve their standard of living. To meet these needs we have formed partnerships with many other agencies and collaborate to fill in the gaps in services, not duplicate them.

A social worker was hired as director in January 1998 to implement the  Emergency Food Program and give referrals to agencies as needed, this began in February of the same year. Redford Interfaith Relief  Redford Interfaith Relief is base Redford Interfaith was located in the basement at St. James Presbyterian Church.  Redford Interfaith Relief opened Tuesday and Friday for Emergency Food.  Volunteers from member churches, and the community, perform all duties related to the distribution of food boxes.

April of 1998, the TEFAP Program (The Emergency Food Assistance Program or Government Surplus Food Commodities Program) was transferred from the Redford Community Center to Redford Interfaith Relief.  This food program is distributed on the second Thursday of each month by RIR volunteers.  See Food Programs list for more details.

May of 1998, the Senior Liquid Nutrition Program was acquired through the Wayne County office of Nutrition Services to meet special dietary needs of community residents ages 60 and over or people with disabilities on the Medicaid Wavier Program.  This program is ordered by the customers  also distributed on the second Thursday.

June of 1998, the Food Day program was implemented to supplement the TEFAP program.  Food Day started by adding margarine and cheese, in 1998, and continues to grow as our resources increase.  By then end of  2001 we were able to increase this amount to several boxes (40 pounds) of food.

In 1999 the First General Assembly meeting of the member churches was held.  The Steering Committee then changed to a 9 member Board of Directors.  Nine different churches are represented on the RIR board.  Each year 3 new members are elected at this annual meeting.

Redford Interfaith Relief services are evaluated at board meetings held 6 times a year and constantly growing to meet the needs of the community.  RIR networks with many community agencies to work together and coordinate services, not duplicate them.

In November of 1999, RIR began the Rent, Utility and Mortgage assistance program.  This was implemented to meet the needs of RIR's customers and to fill in the gaps of existing services available.

In 2000 Redford Interfaith Relief’s programs had outgrown the current location and the Board of Directors realized the need for a new location and an increase in staff.  RIR was blessed with a Food Program Director in February of 2001.  In 2000 alone 74,837 pounds of food were distributed to the needy in Redford. All with one part-time director and many dedicated volunteers.

At the end of March in 2001, this problem reached the crisis stage when RIR permanently lost the use of the elevator for food.  RIR Staff, Board Members and community supporters researched a new permanent location and funding needed to increase the budget accordingly.

The Redford Elks came to Redford Interfaith Relief's rescue in April through August of 2001 providing their hall for our Food Day TEFAP program.  Our volunteers and customers were elated to have a first floor handicapped friendly location, although it was a long 5 months hauling food back and forth down the street to the Elks.  The Elks support of our program was greatly appreciated.  The Tuesday and Friday programs continued at St. James, business as usual until August 14, 2001.

In the spring RIR was approved unanimously by the Redford Union School District to lease three rooms at Roosevelt School.  All of our programs were moved to Roosevelt the week August 15, 2001.  Forty volunteers from our member churches and the Redford community keep the cost of the move to a minimum.  RIR was closed for one day that week.  Many thanks to St. James Church for graciously providing a home for all of our years and to the Redford Elks for providing us an emergency home!!

August 20, 2001 RIR opened at Roosevelt School, 15100 Aubrey, Redford.  This has been a huge improvement to the service of Redford Interfaith Relief.  The new location is all first floor and handicapped friendly, to better serve our senior and handicapped population, not to mention the rest of us.

Sunday, October 14, 2001, RIR held an open house for the community.  There was a good turn out of volunteers from the churches and the community.

After September 11, 2001 RIR along with many Michigan nonprofits, suffered from the decline of donations, across the state donations to Michigan nonprofits were down 60%.

This problem along with the census and the economy also affected our grant for 2002 from Redford Township.  The rent, utility and mortgage program was put on hold in January & February of 2002 until other grant funds could be secured.  Rent and mortgage assistance was restored in March of 2002 with the Emergency Food & Shelter Program Grant.  Utility assistance was discontinued by RIR and customers are now referred to Wayne Metropolitan Community Services for the Thaw program.

April 8, 2002 Redford Union School District unanimously voted to add and additional room to RIR's lease for a clothing program.  Jason Gilbert designed and built the pro-type racks with the help from Mark Temby & staff at Triogiq Company who donated all of the material.  This was Jason's Eagle Scout Project with the help from 28 Boy Scouts, Troop 341 from Redford Baptist Church.  They spent their time building 12 clothing racks for RIR's new clothing closet.  THANKS to Jason & Triogiq for making this program possible!!

June 7, 2002 the Clothing Closet opened and is now providing like new seasonal clothing to our low-income customers.  Children's, Ladies & men's clothing, is provided by our churches and community donors, also  winter coats, shoes, and boots.

The year 2003 continued to be a busy year for Redford Interfaith Relief.  The economy saw many problems, and RIR was here to provide the safety net for many families.  Our programs providing the food, clothing and homeless prevention assistance kept many families from loosing their homes.

In 2004 RIR continues to be ran by an army of dedicated volunteers from 19 member churches, under the leadership of only 1 part time staff person our Executive Director.  This year RIR is pleased to add a new church to our community into membership, El Bethel Baptist Church.  They have been very supportive their first year.  Also 2 of our member churches Rice Memorial and Lola Valley have merged to become New Beginnings United Methodist Church.

In 2004 the RIR Finance Committee worked very hard to provide new ways of funding our programs with all of the grant cuts.  Key Donors have been responsible for the success of RIR.  When grant funding was slashed the volunteers again stepped up to the plate to become the hands and feet of our Lord.  The Redford Senior Club with the help of the St. Hilary's Men's Club cooked up a community Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser feast.  This was the beginning of a hopeful Annual Fundraising Dinner, what a delicious and fun event, supported by the whole community. THANKS!

In 2005 RIR was blessed with a Customer Care Committee to help screen customers and meet the increased referral need.  One of our member churches St. Agathas Catholic Church closed in August. Their Priest and many members moved to St. Priscilla's in Livonia or also Our Lady of Loretta Catholic Church. Redford continues to see an increase in foreclosures of homes.  Several of our customers have run out of unemployment and now have no income, if they do not have children.  Food Assistance (food stamps) are at a record high and Michigan is still receiving them for single people without the 3 month limit due to the economy.   The Redford DHS (MI Department of Human Service) office closed and we assisted our customers with the move to the Greydale, Detroit office.

In January 2006 RIR was again faced with looking for a new location.  Our partner Redford Union School District was again forced to make some very hard financial decisions to close more buildings to balance their deficit.  The School Board presented 3 proposals to close buildings, which soon became 13 proposals with the community input, all listing Roosevelt. We began the search for a new location in January, but handicapped friendly buildings are very few and far between.  After much prayer, on October 11^th at 5:30 PM we were told Redford Union had found a new home for RIR in the back of Pearson Education Center, 19990 Beech Daly.  Our move was done with all volunteers and a great success due to the dedication of a wonderful volunteers and community support of everyone.

The very next day, TEFAP day, we scheduled 152 families appointments for November on 4 different TEFAP days in a Client Choice Pantry. We received much support from Wayne County and Gleaners to make the needed changes in our program. In our new location our program totally changed to better accommodate our customers and volunteers. We are doing more with less space. Our TEFAP program has grown to serving almost 200 families all served from 9:30 AM to noon on one Thursday a month at Roosevelt.

Our staff is always looking for ways to improve our program and with much research with Gleaners Community Food Bank the choice was made to go to Client Choice Program.  Client Choice is considered Best Practices in Food Pantries.  Our customers now shop for their own groceries in a nutritional sound pantry. We now have a glass door cooler that allows our customers to choose what fresh food they need, that is delivered by Forgotten Harvest every week. This has been a huge nutritional improvement to our program. Next year we hope to add a glass freezer to allow the choice of frozen food.

By January 2007 our Client Choice Food Pantry was running smoothly and TEFAP appointments were made for 4 different days of the month to increase our capacity to serve the ever growing need of 230 certified families a month just for the TEFAP food program.  We also served up to 50 families a month for Emergency Food Program and fresh items when they came in to recertify for TEFAP. Keeping our community in their homes became a priority this year, providing more food to help families make ends meet.

October 2007 with the increasing need for food RIR was fortunate to hire our Founding Director Paula Martin, MBA for a part time short term contract to assist with clients.  RIR is in the process of trying to raise addition funds to support this position.

December 2007 UPS Foundation of Metro Detroit provided RIR with a $10,000.00 Employee Volunteer Grant.  This grant request was made to UPS by Anne Sarazin our dedicated volunteer and UPS employee. We were able to purchase 3 industrial glass door freezers to increase our capacity for our customers to see the meat and other assorted frozen items received from Gleaners Community Food Bank and Forgotten Harvest Food Rescue.  No Rent or Mortgage Financial Assistance was provided in 2007, due to the increased need of food and referrals.

Summer 2008 in response to the increased need for food RIR volunteers started RIR’s first community pantry garden in the courtyard right outside our pantry.  The startup was funded by Wayne Metro Community Action Agency, Community Funding Initiative.  Volunteers rototilled the ground, built a regulated drip watering system, planted seeds and plants, weeded, picked the fresh vegetables and herbs. Our clients were delighted with all of the fresh food and the sharing of knowledge of how to prepare and freeze it; several clients volunteered their time in the garden.

In 2008 the Michigan economy took its toll on Redford, businesses and home foreclosures were everywhere.  RIR saw many clients that had never had to ask for help before.  Seniors on fixed incomes struggling to keep their homes, baby boomers caught between helping their children and aging parents and many laid off workers that were not prepared with emergency funds.

Foreclosures are affecting all of us. Due to the extreme need of our economy RIR is now requiring all clients that come to RIR every month for food to apply for the Federal Food Stamps Program (Michigan Food Assistance Program FAP Bridge Card).  Food Stamps are the Federal Safety net for food insecurity and should be everyone's first course of action. RIR gives out DHS applications and has been referring to MI DHS since 2000 for this service.  Redford seniors are now able to go to the Redford Township Senior office and our Senior Coordinator can now apply for DHS programs for residents 60 years old through the MiCafe program online.  This has been a great help to our seniors. One senior that had never applied for Food Stamps before is now getting $168.00 a month on her Bridge card to spend at our local grocery store, less than 2 weeks after applying with Dorothy Morris. For every dollar of Food Stamps spent, it is also keeping our local grocery stores open and local people employed. In 2000 when RIR first started doing Food Stamps referrals only 11% of the people that came to RIR for help reported receiving Food by the end of 2008, 70% of our clients were receiving Food Stamps.  This benefit to our clients and community is part of how RIR educates and empowers our clients to use the income that they do have to prevent their homelessness.

RIR would like to thank the Redford Township Senior Club for their wonderful Benefit Golf Outing, Banquet and Silent Auction (at St. Robert Bellarmine Catholic Church) in June of 2008.  The fundraiser brought the entire community together to support Redford Interfaith Relief's fight against hunger and homeless prevention.  The Senior Club raised $18,277.44 to keep RIR open for another year, when other programs are forced to closing their doors due to lack of funding.

In 2009 RIR is working with New Detroit Coalition to increasing our capacity with the Compassionate Capital Initiative. This is year 5 of a 6 year Federal grant for New Detroit to assist small nonprofits like RIR.  This has given the RIR director and board the opportunity to attend numerous workshops, evaluations and webinars on nonprofit best practices by the best consultants in their field. RIR also received a subaward to improve our capacity with IT support, nightly backups and updated our accounting system with a CPA to Quickbooks to improve accountability to our board and funders.

Many thanks to the Redford business community leaders for fundraisers they are doing to support the RIR program to keep their neighbors in the homes and prevent more foreclosures next door.  Special thanks go to Dr. & Mrs. James Kravis and the Correct Care Family Chiropractic staff for continued support with community donations drives of cash, food and personal care. Dr. Kravis, wife Sandy and staff support Redford in many ways and have been supporting RIR with drives since 2001. In 2008 & 2009 Mr. Fred Inman of Vicky's Homemade Ice Cream starting raising money for RIR with their fun 50 foot Banana Split fundraiser celebrating National Clown week with Clowns around Redford. Fred has done this annual fundraiser for other organizations for 10 years. This is a wonderful community event at Vicky's don't miss the great fun, I never knew clowns made such great banana splits, it tastes as good as it looks, now you see it, now you don't. It brought back many great memories after RU band concerts eating the best ice cream in town at Vicky's. Thanks Dr Kravis and Fred Inman for your business leadership!

We are also looking forward to Murphy's restaurant on 5 mile doing a dinner fundraiser for RIR in January 2010. Thanks in advance to Kevin and Sandy Murphy for your support!

Redford Interfaith Relief is successful due to our dedicated Redford member Churches, Redford Township, Redford Union Schools, Redford Senior Club and other community groups and individuals all working together to make Redford a better place to live and work. No matter how bad the economy gets God has always provided RIR resources needed to continue our mission: Promoting the dignity of all people through faith-based support by assisting and empowering those in need. Redford is truly a generous community of neighbors that help their neighbors!! THANKS! May God Bless all of you!!