Rising prices and economic disparities, they're making it really hard for many families to put food on the table.

According to Feed America, one in five children in southeast Michigan face hunger and food insecurity increases during the summer when kids are not getting regular meals at school.

The local nonprofit, Forgotten Harvest, is making sure families have access to fresh, nutritious food through its summer feeding program and other initiatives.

I spoke with the organization's new CEO, Adrian Lewis.

It's really great to have you here.

Forgotten Harvest is such an important institution in our community.

I love that you are its new leader.

Let's talk about the things that you're confronting as you take over there at Forgotten Harvest.

We wanna talk more specifically about summer and how different that is, but give us an overall picture of the organization- - Yeah.

- And the challenges.

- Absolutely.

Well, Forgotten Harvest,.

over the almost 35 years of its existence, it's always been about closing that gap on food insecurity and hunger throughout Metro Detroit.

That has not changed.

And as we begin to now better leverage our new facility, we are truly doing that, Stephen, and that's really fortunate in sense that we're able to do it because we're seeing a 30% increase in demand for our services.

So being able to do that, it's definitely a plus, but obviously, we wanna make sure that we're being very specific and concise on where we're addressing that need.

- Yeah.

Let's talk about that new facility.

That's been a long time coming.

- Yeah.

- What's the advantage to the organization of having that facility?

And how much better that makes the services that you provide?

- Absolutely.

The facility itself is about 78,000, I'll call it 80,000 square feet.

And to be able to not only have the extra capacity to hold food goods, but we're now able to really be creative in how we distribute it, especially from an equitable perspective and making sure that we're getting things sorted so that we can reach all of our 260 distribution sites in a timely manner.

And that focus is all about getting the right food to the right place and the right quantity in the right time, because that's essential.

We will not ever have any intentions on making sure that the goods are still fresh, the goods are still getting to the right place, - 650 sites.

That's such an incredible number.

- Yeah.

- Talk about that network of delivery and how widespread it is.

How many different parts of this community you reach with that?

- Yes.

We're able to, again, we primarily services the Tri-County area, and to have distribution partners strategically positioned, and we use a lot of great data to determine that, Stephen.

We try our best to make sure that we're not overlapping and we're truly reaching new points of access.

And to have those partners, we wouldn't be able to do it without them to do that.

But those partners come in many ways, right?

We have to have the distribution partners, but we also have to have the donating food partners in which we have great relationships with all of the major retailers as well as the manufacturers and distribution centers that are throughout.

And that's the great, that's the great point in this.

And I call it the magical collaboration.

And I know we don't have much time, but one of these days, I'll tell you my stone soup story.

- Yeah.

- And that's what we're making here.

So.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

- It's an honor to lead this grand mission and it means so much to me as well as to you, I know.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

All right, so let's talk about summer.

- Yeah.

- And what summer means for hunger in this community, and therefore, what it means for Forgotten Harvest?

Things look a little different than they do other parts of the year.

- Yeah.

If we look at the vulnerable populations of our children, as well as our seniors, right?

If we look at just those two, and there's probably a few others I could easily name, but summer feeding has definitely been a focus.

We have at over 10 sites that we're doing summer feeding at.

But being able to definitely keep the youth nourished as well as involved during the summer months, but also for our seniors, we're partnering with Amazon, DoorDash to be able to do deliveries throughout the summer.

- Yeah.

- Many of our seniors aren't able to get out, as you would imagine.

So we're identifying those individuals that we can help and assist.

And it's all about choice, right?

I mean, many of our distributions are a matter of, you'll see those already predetermined amounts that we're giving to our neighbors in need.

But we are now working on our client choice market in which we will have the ability to have our neighbors to come in and shop just like a grocery store in which it's not a new concept, but it is new and exciting for us to be able to roll out into the community, and we're gonna also have at least four mobile units with that capability.

- Yeah.

- Exciting stuff.

- Yeah, no, it is.

I wanna talk a little about the kind of the nature of hunger and the transitory nature of it, and how you manage that?

I mean, I think, often when people think of poverty, if they think of housing instability, if they think of hunger, they think of it as something that's ongoing for everyone, and that it's always the same group of people who have the same needs and challenges.

But of course, it's way more complicated than that.

And it seems like it gets more complicated over time, that that needs pop up because of circumstances.

So how do you manage that with something like Forgotten Harvest to make sure, as you say, that you're meeting the needs when they arrive?

- Yeah.

That's a very good point there, Stephen.

And the best way I would describe it is by having such a mission with dedicated members of that mission, but more so, being a listening ear to the community.

And those partners that we utilize, whether it be our donors or our distribution points, we have close relationships with those individuals, and we're able to hear firsthand, in many instances, as to if a need were to shift in a certain area.

And a real interesting stat for you is the average person that utilizes our services is it's, of course, there's some anomalies, but on an average of about five times a year.

So what does that tell us, right?

It tell us that anyone can have a bad day or bad bad week.

It's not always that stereotype of what hunger has looked like in the past or- - Yeah.

- Or what food insecurity may look like.

And as we look at all three counties, there's not a county that that stat does not exist in.

So it's really, really interesting and we're really grateful to be able to have the partners in collaboration to be able to do that free of charge- - Yeah.

Yeah.

- For our community.

- I also wonder what you're seeing in terms of the need in our community, and whether it is more acute right now because of some of the things that we're dealing with in a general economy, or, in fact, whether maybe they're not as acute.

I mean, we keep hearing stats about the falling numbers of children in poverty because of things like the federal tax credit and some other measures, but I wonder what that looks like from you as a provider.

- Yeah.

What we're seeing, it definitely aligns with the high inflation of food, right?

It definitely aligns with that.

It definitely shifted as the tax credits were exhausted, so to speak.

- Yeah.

Right.

- So that definitely aligned.

But you know what was really interesting post-pandemic, as I would say, is that many of our family, of our neighbors in need, or neighbors in general, were just made more aware of that dignity of respect that we're providing as a service.

That they're not ashamed to share.

That they're sharing more about the awareness with other neighbors.

So I believe that also has an uptick in the use of our services that may or may not have been there in the past.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, Adrian Lewis, great to have you at the helm there at the Forgotten Harvest, and wonderful to have you here with us on "American Black Journal."

Thanks so much for joining.

- And again, thank you for having me, and I look forward to connecting in the future.

Thank you again.