OAK PARK — Forgotten Harvest, metro Detroit’s only food rescue organization, is turning to crowdfunding to launch a campaign that will fund the purchase of a new truck for the organization.
An anonymous donor has made a gift of $100,000 toward the purchase of a new truck. The goal of the crowdfunding campaign, supported by CrowdRise, one of the nation’s premier web-based crowdfunding experts, is to raise an additional $60,000 to complete the truck purchase.
CrowdRise has worked in conjunction with Forgotten Harvest to design a donation site that will enable Forgotten Harvest supporters to donate individually or by leading a team they build through their own contacts. Donors of at least $250 will have their names printed on the “community” truck.
To make a donation or recruit a donor team through crowdfunding, visit: crowdrise.com/ForgottenHarvestTruckAppeal.
“When Forgotten Harvest received this generous $100,000 donation, we saw it as a great opportunity to engage the community through crowdfunding and celebrate donations to us by displaying donor names on the truck,” said Marc Berke, senior director, major gifts at Forgotten Harvest. “Our mission depends on these trucks day in and day out, and this is the first step in a multi-year effort to make sure our fleet is modern, clean, efficient and reliable.”
Forgotten Harvest’s fleet of trucks is on the road six days a week and visits 800 grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants, caterers, dairies, farmers, wholesale food distributors and other Health Department-approved locations to rescue surplus prepared and perishable food that might otherwise go to waste. The rescued food is then delivered free of charge to more than 280 emergency food providers in Metro Detroit. Forgotten Harvest’s trucks combine for roughly 500,000 miles driven each year. The organization expects to replace 8 trucks in its aging fleet over the next year.
