It’s shocking, how many West Michigan families don’t know where their next meal will come from. But it’s amazing, what a big difference you make when you join Feeding America West Michigan – and thousands of farmers, manufacturers, grocers, restaurateurs and other committed citizens – in saving surplus food from landfills and sending it where it’s needed to feed the hungry. Ever wondered what you can do about hunger? This 4-minute video shows how a little help from you can make maximum change.

But in every generation, a few people manage to start enormous waves of change – and sometimes even to turn the tide against long-term problems.

John Arnold was one of those people. As our executive director for 21 years, John was the driving force behind developing a food bank that would do more to help the hungry than almost anyone could have imagined. Today, as a direct result of John’s vision and energy, Feeding America West Michigan reaches more than 100,000 households in 40 counties. His model of rescuing good food and having those who need it choose what they could use has become the standard around the country. His vision of mobile food trucks providing perishable goods directly to communities has been duplicated in more than 100 food banks around the country.

Please join us on Saturday, May 19 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. to celebrate John’s legacy – and follow in his footsteps – by visiting and volunteering during the John Arnold Day of Service at Feeding America West Michigan Food Bank’s main warehouse, 864 West River Center Drive in Comstock Park, just north of Grand Rapids. Get directions.

Let’s each honor John in our own small way – and together make waves in his memory and in the fight against hunger.

Later that day, the John Arnold Memorial Bike Ride will depart from the Food Bank at 12:30 p.m. This 15-mile trip to Rockford and back along the White Pine Trail includes a stop for lunch at Arnie’s in Rockford. Email Andrew Steiner at andrews@feedingamericawestmichigan.org for more information.

On the next Saturday, May 12, help your friendly local postal workers fight hunger during the National Association of Letter Carriers’ “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. Delivery workers will pick up unexpired, unopened packaged and canned foods that you leave by your mailbox. To learn more, ask at your local post office. To volunteer that day, call Dena Rogers at (616) 784-3250.

In Michigan, the 2011 value of a donated hour of labor was $19.79, according to Independent Sector, the 600-member non-profit network. By that reckoning, volunteers gave Feeding America West Michigan the equivalent of $464,669 – almost half a million dollars–last year. That’s enough for us to distribute almost $5 million worth of food!

Most volunteers work in the Main Warehouse Reclamation Department, sorting, evaluating, washing, repacking and labeling donated food. The department processed 4,153,855 pounds of food in 2011– an increase of 317,635 pounds over the previous year.

Volunteers also help the Food Bank harvest fresh fruit and vegetables, stage fundraising events and perform some office tasks. To learn more about how you can help feed West Michigan by volunteering, visit www.FeedingAmericaWestMichigan.org/volunteer.

The Food Bank is now collecting items from about half of the Meijer stores in West Michigan and has plans to expand to the rest of the 28 stores in the region.

In January, Meijer donated two truck tractors to add to our fleet. This is the second year that the retailer has donated reconditioned vehicles to us. In the past year, the company donated more than 18 tractors to food banks and educational institutions throughout the Midwest.

“We will be using the restored tractors for picking up food donations, as well as food delivery within our 40-county service area, which includes the Upper Peninsula, and the west side of the state down to St. Joseph,” said Tim Johnson, a Food Bank driver. “Having access to this refurbished equipment helps us to serve the many hungry families in West Michigan.”

Meijer is also working with Feeding America food banks in other states, and eventually plans to have food rescue in all 197 of their stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky.

Helping fight hunger has been a primary focus of Meijer for many years. They support the communities where their customers and team members work and live. The company annually donates millions of pounds of food to local food banks and pantries, and has generated more than $2.3 million in donations to local food banks through its Simply Give program.

Can’t read the above? Click here for a much larger PDF.

Feeding America West Michigan regularly hosts such “Depot Deliveries” in areas far from our six warehouses, so that cash-strapped agencies don’t have to drive all the way to a warehouse to get food.

Future Muskegon Depot Deliveries will be held on the first and third Thursdays of each month. Contact nancyw@feedingamericawestmichigan.org to learn how your agency can participate in a Depot Delivery.

For years, we feared the repercussions that power outages could have on the tons of perishable products in our industrial freezers and coolers. So we made plans and raised funds to acquire a generator. But as we neared our goal in fall 2011, the power went out.

A power outage at the Food Bank turns day into night. All of the lights in the enclosed warehouse go out. The day’s business slows to a crawl – or halts entirely. Phone service and computerized record-keeping are disrupted. Lift-trucks go uncharged. Overhead dock doors can be opened only by hand, if at all.

The normally noisy cooling apparatus that maintains safe temperatures in the Food Bank’s 46,550-cubic-foot freezer and 39,200-cubic-foot cooler falls silent. Future distribution is affected, too: During power outages, agencies can’t place or update orders online. Worst of all, the vulnerable families they serve can go hungry.

Fortunately, the fall 2011 outage is the last one we’ll ever experience at our main warehouse. In January, we purchased a six-cylinder, 200-kilowatt electric generator, which was installed on February 1, 2012. During a blackout, it could supply the warehouse with 100% of its usual power level for 24 hours, 75% power for 32 hours or 50% power for 46 hours.

The generator was funded largely by a gift from a private individual, facilitated by the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. Other major contributors to this project included the Baldwin Foundation and the Fremont Area Community Foundation, both long-time supporters of the Food Bank. Buist Electric Company of Byron Center donated its time and labor to install the equipment.

Thanks to these supporters, the next time our neighborhood loses power, distribution won’t be interrupted, products won’t spoil and agencies won’t see their vital food supplies interrupted.

But at Feeding America West Michigan’s Ishpeming branch warehouse, the pantry shelves are right there in the warehouse. What’s the difference between a food pantry and a food warehouse? A food pantry operates somewhat like a retail grocery store: That is, people come to the pantry to shop for themselves and their families. (But unlike grocery store food, pantry food is free to people in need.)

In contrast to a pantry, a warehouse typically doesn’t serve individuals or families, but the Upper Peninsula didn’t have enough pantries. So Branch Manager Dave Mason set up a pantry that operates two days a month and usually serves 250 to 300 families.

“Seven years ago, John Arnold (former Food Bank Executive Director) said we needed to get more food out to hungry people up here,” Mason says, “and the quickest way to do that was to set up a pantry right here.”

It’s a small operation, open the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. But it’s hugely important in the Ishpeming area. “Most of our pantry clients used to come in just once or twice, but now it’s getting harder for people to get back on their feet,” Mason says. “So we’re seeing more of the same people month after month. It’s difficult for people out there.”

Mason, whose staff is “one part-timer who’s always out in the truck,” relies on volunteer help to run the twice-monthly pantry. The volunteers include local clergy and a half-dozen clients “who have come in for food and decided they wanted to help.”

He and his volunteers take pride in the pantry’s “client choice” approach (allowing people to choose food they’ll use, rather than handing out boxed assortments) and its welcoming atmosphere.

That means a lot to Mason. “We don’t ask invasive questions and we don’t limit people to once a month like some places do. People feel comfortable here, and we think we may have influenced some other pantries in the area.”

Running the pantry, he says, “may be one of the most beneficial things I’ve ever done.”

For the third straight year, her students have exemplified service learning by selling their ceramic creations to raise money for Feeding America West Michigan. Most recently, they raised $1,000 in two 2011 holiday sales – enough to provide $10,000 worth of groceries to hungry West Michigan families.

The funds were raised at two campus events: the Calvin Visual Arts Guild show, attended almost exclusively by art students, and the larger Fair Trade Fair, which featured vendors from around the world. The latter event was the first time students sold to a college-wide audience. According to Anna, the sale’s success was “positive reinforcement for their work and their cause.”

In class, as her students study and make bowls, cups and plates, Anna encourages them to consider what the pieces are used for. “Although I teach ceramics as sculpture, I also emphasize the utilitarian nature and history of clay forms. I use vessels as a vehicle to get students thinking about food.”

Calvin students are thinking a lot about food these days, she says. Generally, today’s students are “more thoughtful than ever about their diets, and also about food production and distribution, worldwide and here in the U.S.”

Her students seem to grasp the relationship between food distribution and hunger “right here in Grand Rapids, where they can see homeless people lining up outside soup kitchens every day.”

By raising money for the Food Bank, ceramics students help ensure that food distribution doesn’t bypass their poorest neighbors. They also help students and faculty understand the prevalence of hunger here in West Michigan – and the most effective way to combat it.

Both the fund-raising and the heightened awareness “integrate meaningfully into a holistic learning experience,” Anna points out. In other words, supporting the Food Bank helps put the “service” into “service learning.”