Program preps food for the hungry that otherwise might intimidate Crain's Detroit
For Food Gatherers and the people it serves, the 40-pound hubbard squash donated by a nearby, Ann Arbor farmer was both a boon and a curse.
It could help feed any number of people, but no one coming for food assistance would select the giant bluish-green vegetable.
They had no idea how to prepare it, President and CEO Eileen Spring said.
he same happened with oversized carrots and beets, an ugly vegetable that intimidates people, she said.
“Farmers produce those (vegetables), and they end up in a landfill because no one knows what to do with it,” Spring said.
The pilot program to address this problem was funded with a $200,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan and the Michigan Health Endowment Fund as part of the Healthy Food Connect program.