Bay City food giveaway delivers 16 tons of items to people in need

BAY CITY, MI - A group of dedicated volunteers in Bay County is serving up free food with a dose of kindness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Safe Harbor Kitchen at 706 Joseph St. in Bay City has been hosting multiple food giveaways since March to help those who need a helping hand. The latest event was held on Tuesday, Oct. 27.

Safe Harbor is partnered with the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, a nonprofit organization that services 22 counties throughout the state and networks with partner organizations to distribute food to families and individuals in need.

Kara Ross, president and CEO of the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan, said that she is seeing a big increase in people that are facing food insecurity in her coverage area. Normally her organization sees 14% of the population facing food insecurity in the counties it covers - right now the pandemic is pushing that number up to 40%, she said.

“A lot of people are still working, so they’re working two or three part-time jobs and maybe not having the same hours or household income that they had even eight or nine months ago, or places aren’t fully back up and operating, so it’s creating this gap for a lot of families,” Ross said.

That increase in demand prompted Safe Harbor to step up to strengthen its food giveaways. Executive Director of Safe Harbor Steve Roe said that Safe Harbor has done monthly giveaways for the past four years, but the demand and a surge of grant funding on the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan’s end allowed the group to move to having the event several times a month.

The Safe Harbor location is the largest food distribution site in Bay County - so far the site has handed out approximately 1.6 million pounds of food to help stock refrigerators and cupboards since the pandemic started in March, said Roe.

“Having it weekly and being able to serve this volume of people in need is really unprecedented during, even my 23 years at the Food Bank, to have this amount of people who are either unemployed or underemployed right now – it is historic for us as an organization," added Ross.

The latest food giveaway at Safe Harbor on Tuesday saw volunteers braving a cold day with gray skies that kept spitting a mix of snow and rain at them as they worked to feed Bay County’s families. Despite the weather, volunteers at Safe Harbor went on to distribute 32,000 pounds of food, an amount that Roe says can serve anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 people.

Boxes containing fresh dairy, seasonal produce, meat, eggs, juice and other fresh products are carefully placed in each vehicle by volunteers wearing masks and gloves. Recipients never have to leave their car during the process, reducing the risk to them during the pandemic.

According to Ross, there are no requirements for someone to receive assistance through the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan’s partners.

“There’s no income requirement, there’s no paperwork, there’s no referral needed at all – it’s just a self declaration for the household," she said.

More than just a box

The boxes of food and the giveaway events do more than just keep stomachs full - they also give people hope and what Roe called a community family connection.

“It’s more than just the food. Because we do things different, when we’re up there we’ll have fun with them, they’ll be laughter out there - there’s going to be encouragement. I’ve gotten to know a lot of the faces, gotten to know names," said Roe, who is also a pastor. “Some I’ve been able to minister to at a church level where they’ve had serious needs and needed to talk to somebody because there’s depression, there’s all kinds of stuff that people are dealing with through this pandemic, not just the food.”

In addition to the mass food giveaways, Safe Harbor also operates a food pantry and serves community meals. The food pantry is open on Mondays from 1 - 3 p.m. while homecooked meals are served 6 p.m. each Monday and Tuesday evening. Roe said that so far Safe Harbor has served 13,000 meals since the pandemic started.

Those who have been receiving food at the giveaways have been thankful for the help. Roe, who’s always out visiting and greeting cars that are coming through the line-up and helping load boxes said that he’s even noted people crying, saying that they can’t believe that there’s such a resource.

“They’ve been super supportive, super thankful and super grateful. There are some wonderful people in Bay County that appreciate so much of what we do," he said.

Roe also said that he’s noticed an increase in senior citizens using the food giveaways and that sometimes younger people or friends/family will step in to pick up food for seniors or those who can’t get out.

With the increased unprecedented demand also comes financial challenges as organizations like Safe Harbor and the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan work to keep up, especially as the holiday season creeps closer on the calendar.

“Nonprofits right now, we’re getting hammered….we need funding,” said Roe.

While physical donations help, the return on investment is much greater with monetary donations, according to Ross, with the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan being able to leverage $1 into six meals.

The Food Bank of Eastern Michigan is currently aiming to raise $800,000 for its holiday campaign in an effort to create a buffer as it prepares to address an annual increase in need during the holidays in addition to the already heightened level of need due to the pandemic.

Both the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan and Safe Harbor are currently accepting donations to help them prepare for the holiday season. Ways to donate can be found on the Safe Harbor website and through the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan.

For those seeking food assistance, Safe Harbor regularly publishes dates and times of food giveaways and meals on its Facebook page. Meanwhile, the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan has a list of resources and a facility locator.

St. Patrick's Day Parade Association to collect food for Safe Harbor Soup Kitchen

BAY CITY, MI -- The Bay City St. Patrick's Day Parade begins at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 19, but before it begins, you can help make some less fortunate people in the area feel a little lucky.

The St. Patrick's Day Parade Association and the Safe Harbor Soup Kitchen are teaming up to collect canned foods, non-perishable items and money donations to help the less fortunate in the area.

Just prior to the parade starting, trucks will drive down Center Avenue looking for donations. Those donations will then be taken to Safe Harbor Soup Kitchen, located at Riverwalk Baptist Church at 706 Joseph St. in Bay City.

"We are happy with whatever comes in (at the parade), whatever the community is able to bring," said Chad Cunningham, one of the founders of the food kitchen. "Bay City are wonderful and giving people."

Cunningham added the project has received support from local businesses and community leaders around Bay County.

Safe Harbor serves dinner every Monday and Tuesday night, usually serving to around 80 to 100 people. The pantry serves between 150 to 220 boxes of food every Monday. 

Safe Harbor Kitchen, serving needy in Bay City's Banks District, now open

BAY CITY, MI -- A food pantry and soup kitchen on Bay City's West Side, given a jump start by donors at Bay City's St. Patrick's Day Parade, is now up and running on Monday evenings.

Safe Harbor Kitchen is located at Riverwalk Baptist Church, 706 Joseph St., in the Banks District. A meal is served at 6 p.m. each Monday evening. Guests are given nonperishable food items once per month.

Safe Harbor Kitchen

What: Safe Harbor Kitchen, 706 Joseph St. in Bay City's Banks District

When: Doors open at 5:30 p.m. on Monday evenings. Dinner is served at 6 p.m.

Info: Financial gifts and donations of nonperishable food items can be made by calling 989-894-1189.

More information is available online at www.safeharborkitchen.com

Past meals have included pizza, chicken and spaghetti, with guests welcomed by music from volunteer performers.

"The doors open at 5:30 p.m., and everyone comes in and sits down, and there's a guitar and a keyboard and the kids are singing songs, so there's entertainment," said Chad Cunningham, a Safe Harbor founder. "At 6 p.m., everybody serves everyone that's sitting. They don't have to go up buffet-style, the drinks are brought to them and the buffet is brought to them."

Safe Harbor opened four weeks ago, Cunningham said, its founding greatly aided by about 2,000 pounds of nonperishable food items collected during the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Since then, the group has worked to make a difference in the surrounding neighborhood. According to officials at Linsday Elementary School -- just one block away -- 81 percent of the 342 students at the school qualify for free and reduced-price lunch.

Those seeking to support Safe Harbor can contact organizers with monetary donations or food items by calling 989-894-1189. Cunningham said River Roar, slated for June 26 and 27 along the Saginaw River in Bay City, is to offer opportunities to donate food items to the kitchen.

Steve Roe, pastor at Riverwalk Baptist Church, said the future for the kitchen is a full-fledged community center. The next step in that direction, he said, would be larger facilities with space for food storage and a "clothing pantry."

Right now, though, the pastor said he's pleased with how well the program has taken off; the soup kitchen is seeing about 80 guests per week.

"Our clientele, it's not been just financially struggling, but people who don't socially fit in. We've created a little family," he said. "Everybody that has helped the program ... they all express that there's such a gratifying feeling of serving the community and helping others."