Hidden Harvest turns waste not into want not across the Great Lakes Bay Region

This article is part of an ongoing United For Good series highlighting people, agencies, and programs the United Way of Bay County supports.

At Hidden Harvest, a successful day means empty delivery trucks and full plates. 

Formed in 1994, Hidden Harvest helps restaurants and grocery stores reduce waste while feeding families in the Great Lakes Bay Region. Today, Hidden Harvest sends trucks out into the region to gather surplus food from more than 300 donors and distribute it to nearly 200 food pantries, soup kitchens, and agencies that feed people. 

Realizing that goal takes the work of volunteers, agencies, and paid staff.

It all starts in a space near Downtown Saginaw shared between Hidden Harvest and the East Side Soup Kitchen. 

Samantha McKenzie, President and CEO of Hidden Harvest, says the partnership gives McKenzie’s staff the chance to see the end result of their work.

“We get to see our work in action every day,” she says, as she walks from the Hidden Harvest offices to the Soup Kitchen through a shared warehouse. 

Everywhere you look in the warehouse, there’s donated food. 

Bags of fresh produce and trays of bread in every form from buns to slices to French loaves, sit near pallets filled with canned goods and pantry staples such as rice, flour, and sugar. Commercial-size refrigerators and freezers hold milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, and other dairy products. 

The food ends up here for a range of reasons. 

Schools call and ask Hidden Harvest to pick up individual-sized milk containers that would spoil over breaks. 

A specialty flour-milling company regularly donates 50-pound bags of flour that are created when the production lines switch from one type of flour to another. Customers expect specific flours, not a mix. 

Michigan Sugar sends over brown sugar that has hardened inside the bags.

McDonald’s restaurants donate products that arrive in damaged cases. Other restaurants send over trays of prepared food that never made it to warming trays at catered events. 

“We get some really good stuff,” McKenzie says.

It’s not all fruits, vegetables, and pantry staples. Treats such as ice cream and frozen yogurt sometimes fill the freezers. Today, boxes packed with 2-liter bottles of pop are available.

“Pepsi and Coke called and were cleaning out their inventory,” McKenzie explains. “It’s very nice and our programs appreciate it.”

McKenzie points out plaques on the warehouse and office walls honoring some of the major donors that make the agency’s work possible. She talks about volunteers who tackle work such as re-packaging flour into gallon-size Ziploc bags that are easier for families to take. 

Some of the partners that make Hidden Harvest’s work possible include The Arnold Center Inc. in Midland, which recycles the cardboard, and SC Johnson in Bay City, which donates the Ziploc bags. 

As McKenzie leads the impromptu tour, staff and volunteers periodically stop her to tell her about agencies calling with needs. Some have food to donate. Others are looking for help. 

One volunteer, Jim Dwyer, who retired from Saginaw Valley State University and is volunteering today at the East Side Soup Kitchen, wants to talk about the Hunger Solutions Center.

Dwyer, chairman of the campaign to raise more than $8 million for the Hunger Solutions Center expansion, is happy to explain how the new space will help the community. 

While Dwyer talks inside the Soup Kitchen, construction vehicles are visible through the window as workers build the expansion. The expansion will increase the agency’s ability to store refrigerated and frozen foods while improving storage options for shelf-stable food. Modern loading docks will make it easier to fill trucks and distribute food. 

The new space gives the East Side Soup Kitchen a drive-through to improve its ability to get meals to people.

While the work goes on, the number of people facing hunger insecurity continues to rise. On average, Hidden Harvest gathers more than 250,000 pounds of food per month. In the last 12 months, Hidden Harvest has rescued 3.7 million pounds of food, providing more than 3.1 million meals to the community.

Food insecurity is a very real issue in the community. In this region, four out of every 10 families struggle to afford basic necessities. Approximately 16,566 Bay County residents rely on SNAP benefits to purchase groceries. More than 2,000 additional families use WIC  to purchase fresh food and formula for their children.

The Hidden Harvest team eases the burden on those families. 

At around 8:30 a.m., McKenzie stops the tour and returns to the front office to meet with Jeremiah Janze, Program Manager; Tyler Hecht, Recipient Agency Coordinator/Warehouse Manager; Dakota Deer, Program Assistant; and Food Delivery Specialists Matt Young, Matthew Crowe, and Paige Brooks.

During the brief meeting, the Food Delivery Specialists jot notes on sheets detailing their stops for the day. McKenzie asks Brooks to return calls that came in over the weekend from donors on her route.

By 8:45 a.m., the meeting is over and Brooks is inside the warehouse selecting goods and hand-loading them into a 12-foot refrigerated truck. 

Brooks drives the truck to Bay County on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. She goes to Midland on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Fridays, she does a shorter route in each community. In the summer, she also makes a weekly run to Pinconning’s Camp Fish Tales.

As she fills her truck at the warehouse, she talks about the needs of the agencies she’ll visit today and what food she expects to pick up along the route. 

Today’s stops include a program for teens that’s part of the Bay County Prevention Network, so she looks for snack foods such as chips or pre-made sandwiches. She’s also scheduled to go to Safe Harbor Kitchen, so she grabs milk, potatoes, celery, and other ingredients for hot meals. Everyone wants bread, so she stocks up on that. 

Today’s donor stops include Aldi, several 7-11s, and a handful of restaurants. She doesn’t know exactly what each will have for her, but she needs to leave room in the truck to transport it. 

Her goal is to partially fill the truck before leaving the warehouse, add products along her route, and distribute everything to agencies that can use the food. Most days, she returns to the Saginaw warehouse around 4 p.m. with an empty truck.

Today’s first stop is Aldi, where boxes are marked for the grocery store’s “Food Recovery Program.” There, Brooks scores frozen meat, specialty cheese, and other items. She’s pleased as these are some of the higher-priced grocery items that people need. 

Brooks has been part of Hidden Harvest for nearly six years. Brooks admits she knew little about Hidden Harvest before she started working in the office. After about a year in the office, she was hooked on the agency’s mission. For almost five years, she’s been a Food Delivery Specialist, visiting agencies and donors in Bay and Midland counties. 

It’s clear she enjoys the job.

The people on her route know her well, greeting her by name and sharing some good-natured jokes about why she needs a helper today. When Brooks is out of earshot, they praise both her dedication and how much Hidden Harvest helps the community.

Bob Suchy from the Corpus Christi Parish Food Pantry on Bay City’s West Side talks about how the food Brooks delivers will stretch what the pantry can offer families. 

Suchy is well known to most of the Hidden Harvest staff. A few years ago when Brooks wanted to take some time off, Suchy learned her route and completed it so she could take a vacation without any service disruption.. 

Lona Smith from the Smith Food Pantry says unhoused people living near her family pantry on Johnson Street appreciate the pre-made sandwiches that Brooks finds at 7-11 and Starbucks. It gives her clients a chance to eat something other than shelf-stable foods that don’t need cooking. 

Back in the truck, Brooks returns the favor, telling stories of how the agencies and donors have benefited the community. 

Brooks talks about how Hidden Harvest was able to provide some of the food the Smith Food Pantry needed to pack Thanksgiving food boxes for the families of area veterans.  She talks about individuals who made cash donations, large and small, to help further the mission.

“I love hearing what impact the food has on the community,” she says. 

If you or your family are facing food insecurity, contact 211 Northeast Michigan for help.