Nearly half a century into Gleaners’ work, we remain focused on our core purpose: feeding people and nourishing lives. Food banks have long been called to the frontlines when communities and households face significant and unexpected challenges.
To protect this mission, we’re committed to a Sustainability Plan designed to meet today’s challenges, while preparing the organization for a strong future. The plan includes investing reserves into innovation and consistency, increasing fundraising and volunteer engagement to address resource gaps, and evaluating expenses regularly.
Starting in January 2025, government-donated food dropped significantly, resulting in 5 million fewer pounds received in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2024. Additionally, SNAP education funding cuts resulted in the elimination of funding for Gleaners’ nutrition education programming.
A pause of SNAP benefits in fall 2025 shocked Southeast Michigan, complicated by continued low levels of USDA food availability, creating immediate and difficult trade-offs for families with children, seniors, and veterans.
Requests for food assistance surged across emergency food networks. Relying on decades of experience and guided by our Sustainability Plan, Gleaners rapidly scaled operations, leveraged reserves, and used state and other donor resources to maintain access to nutritious food for partners and guests.
Resilience in Action: Scaling Operations
Many will remember the urgency of the COVID-19 pandemic, when food banks rapidly reimagined distribution models to meet an unprecedented demand. With the support of local communities, food banks responded with urgency and purpose to the demand for food assistance.
The successful systems launched, continued and improved from that period proved critical in fall 2025. Drawing on lessons learned, we closely monitored community needs and changes in government support to quickly respond.
Gleaners added volunteer shifts to increase the volume of food boxes packed and direct-to-guest distributions were enhanced in areas of highest need. Showing how dedicated this community is to its neighbors, supporters accelerated their contributions and launched food and fund drives.
As a result, food distributions in November and December 2025 were the second-highest for this holiday period in Gleaners’ history. No guests to our drive-up distributions were turned away; all received resources for balanced nutrition. This rapid, large-scale response reflects both careful planning and the strength of our community partnerships to make it possible.
Support for Partners: The ‘Holiday Specials’ Program
Throughout the year, Gleaners’ partner agencies can order available donated food they need or buy strategically-purchased food items through Gleaners to help balance the nutrition and variety available in their pantries, soup kitchens, and other programs.
When donated food began plummeting in January 2025, Gleaners leveraged its Holiday Specials Program, allocating organizational reserves to offer purchased food staples at pennies on the dollar, allowing partner agencies to stretch their budgets.
In October 2025, anticipating imminent SNAP cuts, Gleaners positioned reserves to begin placing large food orders in preparation to avoid delays. With those resources, along with state funding and heightened donor support, Gleaners reinstated Holiday Specials, this time at no cost, for high-demand, purchased food items, like shelf-stable staples, eggs, chicken, and beef.
Over 1.1 million pounds of additional purchased food moved quickly to partner agencies through the Holiday Specials Program, supporting the unique needs of the neighborhoods they serve.
Looking Forward
Gleaners continues to take responsible, deliberate steps to safeguard our ability to work toward the hunger-free communities we know are possible. Even as donated food declines and costs rise, we remain committed to distributing consistent levels of nutritious food in response to community requests for support. We are planning carefully today to remain strong and prepared for the future.
Initiatives like Fresh! by Gleaners are moving forward, guided by community feedback and real-time data to strengthen future service models. We’re working on rebuilding our nutrition education programming based on lessons from the past decade and reviewing expenses to identify efficiencies that enhance service.
Grounded in our mission and strengthened by our community, Gleaners will continue supporting kids, families, seniors, and veterans across Southeast Michigan with a focus on long-term impact in planning, and focused on long-term impact.
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