![Working together to nourish 40 counties for 40 years](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/40th_year_landing_page_banner-3.jpg)
![Working together to nourish 40 counties for 40 years](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/40th-year-landing-page-banner-for-mobile-2.jpg)
In 1981, a few Michiganders who believed no one should go hungry began gathering surplus food and distributing it to their neighbors facing hunger in Kent County.
Since then, Feeding America West Michigan has grown to serve 40 of Michigan’s 83 counties with the help of hundreds of local partners and thousands of donors and volunteers. Together, we put an average of 21 million meals’ worth of food each year on the plates of hundreds of thousands of neighbors who may otherwise go without.
2021 marks 40 years nourishing neighbors together. Despite significant changes during this time, our core beliefs have remained the same: No one should go hungry, meals can change lives and good food shouldn’t be wasted. We work together every single day to make our vision – a community in which all neighbors are nourished and empowered within an equitable food system – a reality.
This page will be updated throughout the year as we share stories, photos and more from the food bank’s journey from past to present – and the steps we are taking next to secure a hunger-free future. Stay tuned!
Hunger Summit
It all began with carrots
![](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Don-Eddys-carrots-2-768x537-1-600x420.jpg)
In 1980, Rev. Don Eddy, director of United Methodist Metropolitan Ministries, called a meeting to discuss the concept of a West Michigan agency resembling Gleaners Community Food Bank, which was founded in 1977 in Detroit. He made the decision to assemble such a group after seeing a truckload of perfectly good carrots being composted on a farm in Grant. On that day, he asked the farmers to stop dumping and told them that he knew a lot of people struggling to put food on their tables who could really benefit from the carrots.
The carrots were just the beginning. In recognition of our 40th year fighting hunger, we’ve put together a timeline highlighting our food bank’s milestones.
40 Years 40 Faces
Throughout the year we’ll be featuring 40 people who have been part of the food bank’s 40-year journey.
40. Ken Estelle - 2021 marked not only the food bank’s 40th year, but also Ken Estelle’s 10th anniversary at Feeding America West Michigan. When he became our […]
Photo Album
![Early staff at our Southwest location](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Early-staff-at-our-Southwest-location-.jpg)
![Bob Lee (first branch manager) and Louise -- first two staff of our Cadillac branch (then known as Northwest Gleaners)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Bob-Lee-first-branch-manager-and-Louise-first-two-staff-of-NW-gleaners-in-Cadillac.jpg)
![An early donation presentation](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/An-early-donation-presentation.jpg)
![An agency partner picking up food](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/An-agency-partner-picking-up-food.jpg)
![A Mobile Food Pantry in a yellow truck, nicknamed "The Bus", at Missionary Church of Christ in Grand Rapids.](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/A-Mobile-Food-Pantry-in-a-yellow-truck-2400x1800.jpg)
![A hi-lo loads a truck at an early warehouse](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/A-hi-lo-loads-a-truck-at-an-early-warehouse.jpg)
![Volunteers sort food in our early days](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Volunteers-sort-food-in-our-early-days.jpg)
![Staff take a break to laugh at our warehouse](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Staff-take-a-break-to-laugh-at-our-warehouse.jpg)
![Sister Rose, a long time volunteer, and an unknown staff member](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Sister-Rose-a-long-time-volunteer-and-an-unknown-staff-member.jpg)
![Priscilla (right) and other staff members](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Priscilla-right-and-other-staff-members.jpg)
![Our old logo and name at our first Mobile Food Pantry (1998)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Our-old-logo-and-name-at-our-first-Mobile-Food-Pantry-1998.jpg)
![John Arnold's 26th anniversary of working in food banking.](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/John-Arnolds-26th-anniversary-of-working-at-the-food-bank.jpg)
![Golden Kiwanis volunteers making family-sized bags of produce](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Golden-Kiwanis-volunteers-making-family-sized-bags-of-produce.jpg)
![First all-staff conference, Dec. 1, 2000](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/First-all-staff-conference-Dec.-1-2000.jpg)
![Early volunteers sort food in reclamation](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Early-volunteers-sort-food-in-reclamation.jpg)
![Priscilla working in the office](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Priscilla-one-of-our-longest-tenured-staff-members-working-in-the-office.jpg)
![Priscilla, one of our longest tenured staff members, drives a hi-lo](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Priscilla-one-of-our-longest-tenured-staff-members-drives-a-hi-lo.jpg)
![A soon-to-be Mobile Food Pantry truck](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Soon-to-be-mobile-pantry-truck.jpg)
![Volunteers glean cherries (2009)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Volunteers-glean-cherries-in-2009-2400x1600.jpg)
![Mike Ward, longtime staffer, drives a hi-lo](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mike-Ward-longtime-staffer-drives-a-hi-lo.jpg)
![Our West River Center Drive warehouse's ribbon cutting ceremony](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Our-current-warehouses-ribbon-cutting-ceremony.jpg)
![John Arnold and a staffer at our Cadillac branch's grand opening](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/John-Arnold-and-a-staffer-at-our-Cadillac-branchs-grand-opening.jpeg)
![Carrying food from an early Mobile Food Pantry](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/lugging-food-from-an-early-mobile-pantry.jpg)
![View of the line at the first mobile food pantry distribution in 1998.](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/The-line-at-our-first-Mobile-Pantry-in-1998.png)
![View of the line at the first mobile food pantry distribution in 1998.](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Neighbors-line-up-at-1st-Mobile-Pantry.jpg)
![Neighbors congregate at our first Mobile Pantry](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Neighbors-congregate-at-1st-Mobile-Pantry.jpg)
![Our very first Mobile Food Pantry, hosted by Settlement Lutheran Church (1998)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/1st-Mobile-Pantry-1998.jpg)
![John Arnold being interviewed by the media](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/John-Arnold-being-interviewed-by-the-media.jpg)
![Spartan delivery (1994)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Spartan-Delivery-1994.jpg)
![John Arnold and others promoting the Michigan Food Safety Awareness Campaign](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/John-Arnold-and-others-promoting-Michigan-Food-Safety-Awareness-Campaign.jpg)
![John Arnold (Executive Director 1989 - 2010) in his natural habitat](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/John-Arnold-Executive-Director-1989-2010-in-his-natural-habitat.jpg)
![The "meat run boys" -- volunteers who picked up meat for the food bank each week (1990)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Meat-run-boys-1990-e1613155453976.jpg)
![The "meat run boys" -- volunteers who picked up meat for the food bank each week (1990)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Meat-run-boys-1990-1.jpg)
![Nabisco Brands donates a truck in 1988](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Nabisco-Brands-donates-truck-in-1988.jpg)
![Young volunteers sort food](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Early-food-drive-donors-2.jpg)
![New mode of transportation (early 80s, the food bank's first van)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/New-mode-of-transportation-early-80s-first-van.jpg)
![Joanne Julier, chairperson of the Food Pantry for Christ Temple Church in Ravenna is assisted by her husband, Jerry, in filling her order at WMG warehouse](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Joanne-Julier-chairperson-of-the-food-pantry-for-christ-temple-church-in-ravenna-is-assisted-by-her-husband-Jerry-in-filling-her-order-at-WMG-warehouse.jpg)
![Gretchen Bouwsma, the food bank's first full-time executive director, addressing the media](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Gretchen-Bouwsma-the-food-banks-first-full-time-executive-director-addressing-the-media.jpg)
![The food bank's very first donation: Carrots saved by Rev. Don Eddy (1980)](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Don-Eddys-carrots-2.jpg)
![The carrots that started it all.](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Don-Eddys-carrots-3.jpg)
![The carrots that started it all.](https://www.feedwm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Don-Eddys-carrots-1.jpg)