Agency Resources

Place an Order

Welcome to Food Gatherers’ online ordering portal! Click here for the WebWindow Online Ordering system. Online Ordering Guide (PDF)

Important deadlines:

  • Orders must be placed by noon 2 business days before your pickup/delivery date.
  • Orders can be placed up to 7 days in advance.
  • You may only place one order per pickup/delivery

If you experience problems with entering your order please contact the Community Food Programs team at (cfp@foodgatherers.org) for assistance!

Membership Documents

Partner programs can find valuable information and alerts here. Questions? Contact the Community Food Programs team at 734-761-2796 or info@foodgatherers.org.

ServeSafe Training Schedule
  • All Partner Programs are required to have adequate food safety training.
  • Food Gatherers provides training for the primary contact at no cost.

If you are unsure about the type of training your program needs, please contact your account manager, or CFP (cfp@foodgatherers.org)

MSU Extension is offering in-person ServSafe courses and testing for $75 per person (the required textbook, ServSafe® Manager 7th edition book with answer sheet, is sold separately).  Find out more and look for a course near you here: https://www.canr.msu.edu/servsafe/events

 

Civil Rights Training

Food Gatherers requires the primary contact at all of our partner programs to complete Civil Rights training annually. This training is only required for the primary contact of your program, and the primary contact can then provide training for additional staff and volunteers as needed. 

Annual Civil Rights Training for Primary Contacts (online course and quiz, about 30 min to complete). Once completed, you will be asked to fill out a form, then the certificate of completion will be emailed to you at the email address you provide. Please forward that training completion confirmation email to your account manager.

Civil Rights Training Checklist – primary contacts can use this to train other staff or volunteers. This does not meet training requirement for the primary contact.

Day of Distribution Civil Rights Training for one time volunteers – use this if you have someone who will only be at your site once and will not be a returning volunteer.

If you distribute USDA Emergency Food (TEFAP), you must display this poster in your distribution area: And Justice For All Poster (updated May 2022). “And Justice for All Posters” in other languages.  To help provide language assistance to clients, use the Language ID Card (pdf).

Questions about Civil Rights Training requirements? Contact Andrew Paniagua at andrew.paniagua@foodgatherers.org or 734-761-2796

Food Safety/Recalls

Click here for an online record of food recalls.

NOTE: Food Gatherers makes every effort to check if we knowingly sent recalled products to you. If we do find that we sent you the product, we will call you directly. However, you may have received the products as donated items from Food Gatherers, you may have purchased the products from another source, or you may have received the products from another donation source.

If you have any questions, contact the Community Food Programs team (cfp@foodgatherers.org) at 734-761-2796.

Policies

Ordering Policy

Severe Weather Policy

Safe Delivery Policy

Tools & Resources

Outreach Materials
Free Food Distribution Flyers
Link2Feed/Service Insights Initiative

Food Gatherers has partnered with Feeding America and other food banks to learn more about the people we serve across our network with the goal of providing better service. Through the Initiative, we are collecting basic data from people served at our partner pantries and meal programs in an efficient, accurate, and secure way using Link2Feed, a cloud-based software system. Link2Feed will be used by all food banks in Michigan. The Initiative greatly increases the ability of our network to reliably and accurately work to address hunger and its root causes throughout Washtenaw County and reflects a strong commitment and significant improvement to how food banks and their network partners are able to access real-time, comprehensive data to enable better evidence-based decisions that can be used to optimally serve our diverse communities. We also gain valuable insights about the people and households we serve, their unique needs, and any barriers families may face while eliminating food insecurity.

Partner Program Workshop and Networking Series

In March 2019, Food Gatherers began a Partner Program Workshop and Networking Series to offer more support to our partner agencies. This workshop occurs quarterly and provides attendees with lunch, time to network with each other, and focused discussions and activities around a single topic. Our partner programs walk away with enhanced skills, knowledge, and new goals to reach to better serve our community.

Produce Promotion
Succession Planning
Volunteer Management, Recruitment & Retention
COVID-19 Guidelines, Summer Food Safety & Re-Incorporating Client Choice into Food Pantries
Nutrition and Recipe Resources

Below you can find helpful handouts for your staff, volunteers and clients!
NEW Cooking Hints and Tips Cards (pdf)

PRODUCE

Fruits and vegetables are full of vitamins and minerals plus fiber, and are very low in calories, which makes them great for a snack or addition to any meal! Browse around below for various tips and recipes.

A-Z PRODUCE RECIPES
RUTABAGA
BEANS

How to cook dried beans (pdf)

BLACK BEANS
BLACK EYED PEAS
CHICKPEAS (GARBANZO BEANS)
KIDNEY BEANS

Kidney Bean Chili (pdf)

PINTO BEANS
WHITE BEAN
SPLIT PEAS
ADDITIONAL RECIPES
Healthy Pantry Resources

The following resources are available to support the design of a healthy pantry.

Our 2023 Healthy Pantry Assessment Tool suggests simple, low and no-cost strategies to transform your food pantry into one that promotes health, provides equitable access to nutritious food, and adapts to the needs of your pantry guests.

Printables

General Nutrition Education for Agency Staff and Volunteers

Become a Partner

Partnering with Food Gatherers

Food Program and Agency Partnership

Food Gatherers is not accepting applications for new food program partners (pantries or meals) at this time. As part of our COVID pandemic response, we have increased services, and have a wide network of partners throughout the county (list and map here). These food pantries and meal sites have ample food, including pantry staples and fresh produce, meat, and dairy, and are able to serve more people. There are programs open throughout the week, including the weekend, and evenings, and some locations do delivery.

To support our hunger relief efforts, please consider being an Outreach Partner or Ambassador. If you have a question about how you can help neighbors access food, please reach out to us to have a conversation. We want to hear from you! Share your information here, or call us at 734-761-2796 to schedule a phone conversation.

Become an Outreach Partner/Ambassador: 

Food Gatherers is always looking to work with community members and groups that have trusted relationships with individuals in our community to help with outreach. Instead of partnering with us to distribute food, we can let you know other ways to help. Outreach partners/ambassadors will contribute in two important ways: 1) connect neighbors to existing resources in the community and 2) provide feedback to Food Gatherers about barriers people face when trying to access services. 

If you are interested in helping members of your community access existing food resources, we would love to talk to you! Share your information here, or call us at 734-761-2796 to schedule a phone conversation.

Most needed Outreach Partners: 

  • Multi-lingual people (Fluent in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, and many other languages would be helpful!)
  • BIPOC Community Members and Leaders: Latino/a/x/e and Black households are more than twice as likely to report being food insecure as white households in the US. “Racial equity is a process focused on centering and respecting the needs, power, and leadership of BIPOC, and a goal of achieving equal, and ultimately optimal, outcomes for BIPOC relative to their white counterparts.” (Bread for the World
  • Residents of (or people with close ties to) a community without access or knowledge of the food pantry network
  • People who identify with any of the following characteristics or have connections with any of the following groups of people
    • Working adults and families 
    • Seniors 
    • Those who make too much money to qualify for government assistance, but are still living paycheck to paycheck
    • Those who do not have reliable or consistent transportation options
    • Those who have physical disabilities or need physical assistance to access pantries
    • Those who don’t qualify for Meals on Wheels, but still struggle with their health and ability to get (and prepare) food they can eat on a regular basis 

Become an Advocate: 

Join our email list today and act now! Visit our advocacy page to learn more! 

Become a Volunteer:

Food Gatherers Volunteer Information and Opportunities 

Food Pantry Volunteer: Contact a food pantry today to see if they need your help! Find our partners here 

Contact Us

Please contact us with any questions or concerns – we are happy to help. Share your information here, or call us at 734-761-2796 to schedule a phone conversation.

 

smiling boy eating sandwich

Contact Us

Current partner agencies can contact us with any questions or concerns – we are happy to help. 

Give us a call at 734-761-2796 or email CFP@foodgatherers.org.