Hero Story

First there was the Flint Water Crisis with the population, particularly children, exposed to lead and one of the best quickest ways to combat this horrible circumstance was with fresh food including dairy, fruits and produce. Great. How will food be distributed to a city of 100K residents and ensure the food is kept safe? The answer is the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan (FBEM). For FBEM, food safety is the highest value and professionals move more than 40 million pounds of food each year to 22 of Michigan's counties.

Next came the worst public health crisis in a century with the COVID-19 Pandemic. Once again FBEM knew what to do, how to do it and increased their capacity to distribute food by 47%! They scaled their work, their system and their infrastructure to meet the increased demand from the community. If the worst man-made disaster in America's history, and the worst pandemic in 100 years wasn't enough, then some of the worst flooding in our state's history occurred when not one, but two dams gave way, and scores of people were washed out of their homes. FBEM, under the leadership of Kara Ross, never flinched. Once again, FBEM increased their capacity and partnership and worked to get food to people who needed it most. This is leadership and this is the importance of the work of food banks all the time, but particularly in times of crisis and great need.