Detroit Senior Housing Gets Community Fridges in New Pilot Program

Metro Food Rescue kicked off a pilot program Thursday. Community fridges and pantries will now sit inside apartment buildings where seniors live. The 62-unit Gratiot Woods Co-op apartments on Detroit's east side became the first location.

The program tackles a real problem. Transportation and time stand between older residents and the food they need. Each site gets restocked weekly with fruit, vegetables, bread, and other essentials.

"I can't imagine being a senior that doesn't have a car and has to use public transportation to get to a food pantry and then lug all that food back on that same public transportation," said Chad Techner, founder of Metro Food Rescue, according to Axios.

The Michigan Health Endowment Fund gave $226,000 to run this for two years. During that span, the organization wants to reach eight to ten sites across the region.

Metro Food Rescue started six years ago. Their mission is to cut down on food waste while getting groceries to people who need them. The group hauls food from big-box stores and farmers to food pantries, soup kitchens, and other places around town.

Over 1.5 million Michigan residents face hunger, Feeding America reports. Food products made up 19% of all solid waste in Michigan landfills as of 2024, per an economic impact report.

Residents at Gratiot Woods Co-op wasted no time. They've started using the new pantry. "It truly is a blessing. A lot of us can't get out the way we would like to, you know, going grocery shopping," said senior Carolyn Gibson, according to WXYZ.

Techner picked up extra catered sandwiches and salads from the Hudson's building downtown earlier in the week to stock the new pantry. This approach takes more work than dropping off bulk goods to traditional food banks, but it could serve residents more directly.

The founder wants to grow the program if the pilot succeeds.