The RIR-Ever-After Story: Of Kindness, Dignity and Community
Routinely four times a month, our volunteers and a amount of small staff gather making preparations for the twice monthly deliveries to 24+ homebound seniors in the Redford Community. This Homebound Senior Delivery Program being operated currently was launched earlier in 2022 and was initially supported by UWSEM, who saw the value of this pilot program. We were humbled!
In September 2022, as a partner agency in good standing, RIR was invited to “dream big” through the Agency Capacity Grant Program of Forgotten Harvest. Today, we are overjoyed to share the news of how this pilot program will be facilitated in 2023 and beyond. Our “big dream” was realized!
Forgotten Harvest has granted RIR $129, 235!
RIR will be expanding the homebound senior delivery program with the help of a designated transit van, adding additional monthly food pantry hours to include evening hours, upgrading refrigeration, and perform continual renovation of the building to provide efficiency and safety for all and include an additional staff person to build the next generation of leadership and volunteers.
Approaching almost 25 years of serving at RIR, we are a trusted and cherished model for food security by the people of Redford Township. Our commitment has been steadfast and ever evolving. Given the times we live in, and with inflation's lingering effects, our presence and necessity in the community has only broadened in scope.
This fortuitous opportunity is a direct result of a $25M gift to Forgotten Harvest from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to support Forgotten Harvest’s efforts in fighting hunger in Metro Detroit.
Thank you also to Mackenzie Scott for believing in the mission of Forgotten Harvest and all who support food security for all of Metro Detroit.
About Forgotten Harvest:
Oak Park, Michigan's based Forgotten Harvest was formed in 1990 to fight two main problems: hunger and waste. Since then, Forgotten Harvest has rescued over 42 million pounds of food just last year by collecting surplus prepared and perishable food from over 530 locations, including grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants, caterers, dairies, wholesale food distributors and other Health Department approved sources. This donated food, which would otherwise go to waste, is delivered free of charge to over 200 emergency food providers in the metro Detroit area. Learn more about Forgotten Harvest and how to help drive hunger from our community at: www.forgottenharvest.org
Routinely four times a month, our volunteers and a amount of small staff gather making preparations for the twice monthly deliveries to 24+ homebound seniors in the Redford Community. This Homebound Senior Delivery Program being operated currently was launched earlier in 2022 and was initially supported by UWSEM, who saw the value of this pilot program. We were humbled!
In September 2022, as a partner agency in good standing, RIR was invited to “dream big” through the Agency Capacity Grant Program of Forgotten Harvest. Today, we are overjoyed to share the news of how this pilot program will be facilitated in 2023 and beyond. Our “big dream” was realized!
Forgotten Harvest has granted RIR $129, 235!
RIR will be expanding the homebound senior delivery program with the help of a designated transit van, adding additional monthly food pantry hours to include evening hours, upgrading refrigeration, and perform continual renovation of the building to provide efficiency and safety for all and include an additional staff person to build the next generation of leadership and volunteers.
Approaching almost 25 years of serving at RIR, we are a trusted and cherished model for food security by the people of Redford Township. Our commitment has been steadfast and ever evolving. Given the times we live in, and with inflation's lingering effects, our presence and necessity in the community has only broadened in scope.
This fortuitous opportunity is a direct result of a $25M gift to Forgotten Harvest from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to support Forgotten Harvest’s efforts in fighting hunger in Metro Detroit.
Thank you also to Mackenzie Scott for believing in the mission of Forgotten Harvest and all who support food security for all of Metro Detroit.
About Forgotten Harvest:
Oak Park, Michigan's based Forgotten Harvest was formed in 1990 to fight two main problems: hunger and waste. Since then, Forgotten Harvest has rescued over 42 million pounds of food just last year by collecting surplus prepared and perishable food from over 530 locations, including grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants, caterers, dairies, wholesale food distributors and other Health Department approved sources. This donated food, which would otherwise go to waste, is delivered free of charge to over 200 emergency food providers in the metro Detroit area. Learn more about Forgotten Harvest and how to help drive hunger from our community at: www.forgottenharvest.org
Redford Interfaith Relief has recently gone through many changes. We are very excited to share with you the updates and changes.
RIR Welcomes Clients back in RIR!
We have been serving clients to the curb for the last 3 years due to the pandemic, as well as major renovations inside our building. We are so excited to invite everyone back in as of March 2023. Our distribution has changed and has allowed us to have less individuals at one time, allowing clients very little time to have to wait. We are so excited to invite you back in!
The Best Gift of All!
We received a wonderful gift at the end of 2020, the deed to the Raeside building and property! The Redford Union School District gifted RIR with the building we have been occupying for the last 5 years. We are very excited to finally have a permanent home after moving 5 times since we were founded in 1998.
Thank you Redford Union School District for housing RIR at 3 other locations and now gifting us a permanent place to call ours!
Building ownership comes with the necessity of fixing the deteriorating roof that is beyond repair. Our goal is to replace this roof with community support in the coming months!
We Have a New Walk-In Cooler!
Since we were gifted the building, we are now able to update the space. We are excited to announce that due to grant funding we were able to install a brand new walk-in cooler! Thank you Margaret Dunning Foundation for your benevolence and support of RIR. With this new walk-in cooler, we are able to receive, store and distribute more fresh produce to our clients. Through the same grant, we also purchased a floor scale that allows us to accurately track our impact by weighing all donated food and food we distribute to our clients.
Hopefully soon, we can safely invite you to stop by and check it out!
Volunteer Spotlight
We want to thank all of our volunteers that have been absolute rock stars throughout the pandemic, and all of the changes we have gone through in recent months! We would not be able to serve our neighbors in need without their help!
So thank you, thank you, thank you volunteers!
Thank you for taking the time to read about our exciting updates at Redford Interfaith Relief.
RIR Welcomes Clients back in RIR!
We have been serving clients to the curb for the last 3 years due to the pandemic, as well as major renovations inside our building. We are so excited to invite everyone back in as of March 2023. Our distribution has changed and has allowed us to have less individuals at one time, allowing clients very little time to have to wait. We are so excited to invite you back in!
The Best Gift of All!
We received a wonderful gift at the end of 2020, the deed to the Raeside building and property! The Redford Union School District gifted RIR with the building we have been occupying for the last 5 years. We are very excited to finally have a permanent home after moving 5 times since we were founded in 1998.
Thank you Redford Union School District for housing RIR at 3 other locations and now gifting us a permanent place to call ours!
Building ownership comes with the necessity of fixing the deteriorating roof that is beyond repair. Our goal is to replace this roof with community support in the coming months!
We Have a New Walk-In Cooler!
Since we were gifted the building, we are now able to update the space. We are excited to announce that due to grant funding we were able to install a brand new walk-in cooler! Thank you Margaret Dunning Foundation for your benevolence and support of RIR. With this new walk-in cooler, we are able to receive, store and distribute more fresh produce to our clients. Through the same grant, we also purchased a floor scale that allows us to accurately track our impact by weighing all donated food and food we distribute to our clients.
Hopefully soon, we can safely invite you to stop by and check it out!
Volunteer Spotlight
We want to thank all of our volunteers that have been absolute rock stars throughout the pandemic, and all of the changes we have gone through in recent months! We would not be able to serve our neighbors in need without their help!
So thank you, thank you, thank you volunteers!
Thank you for taking the time to read about our exciting updates at Redford Interfaith Relief.