Detroit City Wire

The goal of Gleaners Community Food Bank in Detroit is to have a "hunger-free summer."

Corporate partners, such as General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Citizens Bank are matching donations dollar for dollar, Gerry Brisson, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit group, told "The Frank Beckmann Show."

The donations will be used to “make sure, when there is no school in session, kids who depend on those school meals can still have something to eat,” Brisson told Beckmann.

With the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a lot of uncertainty now about exactly when schools will reopen.

“But... we know you have to nourish kids for them to thrive,” he said on the radio program. “Regardless of what happens coming up here, if kids who are food insecure or hungry at home, don’t get those meals, they are not going to do as well. We’ve known that for 100 years. That’s not new.”

The food bank has the ability to leverage every dollar that is donated and matched to produce six meals. “That’s a pretty good deal,” Brisson told Beckmann.

He urged listeners to check out the Gleaners website and consider making a donation, which “makes us able to do our job, which is to get food out, particularly to kids and families right now.”

Those who need help from the Food Bank should call 211, the United Way’s helpline, Brisson said. “There will be a place where they can at least get food right now,” he told the listeners.

There are mobile drive-through distribution sites all over the five counties served by the food bank: Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Livingston and Monroe.  

“They’re safe,” Brisson explained to Beckmann. “There’s no contact with anyone. All the workers are trained and they’re wearing masks and doing the things they need to do, and they will put food right in your trunk. So as long as you can get to a mobile distribution site, you can get food and it’s very, very safe.”