FENTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — Forgotten Harvest Farm sits on more than 95 acres of land, making sure metro Detroit families have the nutritious food they need.
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Every shift begins with workers washing their hands and putting on gloves. And what's unique about Forgotten Harvest is a large part of the work is done by volunteers.
People like Greg Petrosky have been donating their time and hands for the past nine years.
"I try to get out here maybe like once every week or two," Greg said.
He's one of over 2500 farm volunteers a year.
"Somewhere along the way, you have to sit back and say give back a little bit of something to society," Greg said.
This 4-hour shift consists of harvesting both red and green lettuce.
"I finally got the groove once I started, but it's just like two quick motions, just grab, slice," said volunteer Gino Arondoski.
It's an assembly line of bagging and getting the food ready to load the truck.
"It's gonna be from our field, into the warehouse and hopefully on somebody's plate as soon as tomorrow. It doesn't get any fresher than that," said Farm Manager Mike Yancho.
It's a job that now provides most of the produce Forgotten Harvest gives out to people who need it. Yancho said they're experiencing a decrease in food donations from grocery stores.
"The stores themselves, I think, are tightening up on their waste as well," Mike said. "They're coming up with some creative ways to sell the food that used to be donated, so we're seeing numbers dropping that way as well, and it's just more and more expensive for people to go out and buy everything these days, so getting it from us is becoming more and more important."
It's why they've added 11,000 feet of eight-foot tall fencing to protect the crops and keep deer out.
"We're trying to produce more and more on the farm so we can help to supplement that," Mike said.
With only six paid farm staffers, Yancho says volunteers are critical to hitting their goal of producing over a million pounds of food this year.
In general, one pound equals one meal," Mike said. "So, you know, it could be up to a million meals."
Forgotten Harvest is fighting food insecurity, one farm shift at a time.
"Knowing that this food is actually going to end up on someone's table that otherwise couldn't afford it. You know, it, it's really special when I go home and think about that," Greg said.
"The message would be, you know, it's easy to come out here and make a difference, I guess you know you can you can be helpful by not doing very much," Gino said. "We spent time just cutting the lettuce out of the ground today, but you can see what it's going to turn into and how many people it will help out."
