Farmers grow extra crops. Michigan food banks need extra cash to buy it.
Lee and Karen Swift grow zucchini, summer squash, green beans, green peppers and winter squash on their 120-acre farm in southwest Michigan. But most of those fresh vegetables end up feeding hungry families through food banks.
“It’s gotten bigger every year,” Lee Swift said. “We started out very small in 2014 with about 5,000 pounds and we’re up to almost 300,000 pounds now.”
The Swifts sell the bulk of their produce to the South Michigan Food Bank through a statewide program that buys excess food from local farmers to stock pantries. But this lifeline is wearing thin now that food banks are facing a perfect storm of high need and low food supplies.