Kirk Mayes is the CEO of Forgotten Harvest in Detroit. He's a 1999 graduate of the College of Communication Arts and Sciences. Forgotten Harvest is a nonprofit organization that fights hunger and food insecurity by rescuing surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away and they donate it to families in need.
“Forgotten Harvest is Southeast Michigan's food rescue organization,” Mayes says. “Our specialty is to find food from groceries, food manufacturers, agricultural outlets, anywhere we can find it that would've actually ended up going to waste because it doesn't meet the manufacturer's specs or doesn't meet the retail specs. Then we turn it around and give it to about 250 organizations in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb County for free.”
Mayes says two challenges to the mission during the pandemic are the food supply chain and the need for more volunteers.
“Without the volunteers that we typically get, and it's about 16,000 a year that we usually get to help Forgotten Harvest complete the mission, we just can't get the volumes of food that we get in our hands out to people.”
Mayes talks about Forgetten Harvest’s partnership with the city of Detroit and says his giving nature was instilled in him by his parents.
“This is what my mom showed me my whole life through her example of giving back. Whether it's been through getting up every day and working through her local church community or being the matriarch of our family.
“Serving people, doing things for the right reason. Trying to think ahead of the need so somebody doesn't necessarily have to ask for something that you can see that they need. Thinking about the emotional and mental journey that somebody's going through when they don't have enough, and making sure that you're not just there to provide for physical needs, but also that you're there as a human being, helping somebody through a part of their life. All of these things are the true values that my mother instilled into me that allowed me to be a strong servant. Some people look at me and think that I'm a leader, but I'm just really trying to help.”
Mayes defines the serious and pervasive issue of food insecurity. And he explains why Forgotten Harvest is more of a food rescue organization than a food bank.
“No disrespect to the food banking world. But we set up our operation to identify where fresh, healthy food is that still has life, and we try to get it straight to the community with our own logistics capability.”
And he believes the world is up to feeding a growing population.
“I definitely do. There's a lot of the food that we have right now that's being wasted. There's room to be more efficient with what we already have. There are ways that we can actually improve the gaps between what's needed and what's used. I think that will be critical in us being able to make sure that we have the proper kind of food in our supply chain.
“Before we get to a place where we have food shortages, we're going to get to a place first where we have to deal with having less choices, which for Americans and for many people in free countries, that can seem as restrictive as not having all the foods you need. But the truth is we have so many choices and because of those choices, we naturally waste.
“One of the good things right now through the COVID process is the fact that everybody and all motion has slowed down significantly. I'm hoping that that's given us a little extra room and a little extra healing time so the planet can still be there for us when we need her.”
Mayes says MSU was the right place for him coming out of high school.
“Going to MSU, and MSU being literally one of the largest campuses in the country and having a diversity palette of pretty much every culture and every race of people around the globe, being on that campus, it was big enough for me to feel like I was in a whole other world. I feel like MSU was the first world that was mine to grow into.
“MSU was where I grew up. It's where I grew up as a human being, where I grew up as a man, where I learned in many ways what it meant to be an African American against the background of all these other cultures that we're all a part of as well. And learning that we have a significance as an African American community to contribute to that. But there are a lot of other cultures we can also grow from, and I can also grow from. For me, it was just a fantastic experience of growth and discovery and friendships that I still have to this day.
“We've been getting tremendous support from the MSU community and others, but we worry that as this pandemic continues to go on, that about 90 days from now, we don't know where the support's going to be. Don't forget about us at Forgotten Harvest. We may still need you if the pandemic is going on. We could use all of Spartan Nation to get by our side right now. Go green!”
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