The new leader of Gleaners Community Food Bank has started her job at a time that she says poses “compounding challenges.”
Last year, the sprawling metro Detroit food bank saw donations of food drop by more than 9 million pounds. The decrease stems from a drop in donations from the federal government, but also from other sources, including farmers and grocery retailers.
Angela Moloney, Gleaners’ president and CEO, joined the nonprofit − which serves five counties in southeast Michigan and works with more than 300 soup kitchens, pantries, shelters and schools − in January amid tightened work requirements for food assistance benefits and on the heels of a huge spike in demand late last year, when benefits were briefly in limbo amid the federal government shutdown, leading to confusion and agencies having to scramble to meet need.
These days, Gleaners continues to see high demand – compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic – and a “significant reduction” in donated food, Moloney said.
But for Moloney, who has worked in nonprofits her entire career, her recent pivot to helping fight hunger in southeast Michigan came down to one basic idea − food is fundamental.
“Food is really the baseline for success,” Moloney said in a recent interview with the Free Press, ahead of the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, a one-day campaign in May when letter carriers collect non-perishable food items for food pantries. Gleaners is participating in the effort this year.
Moloney takes over for Gerry Brisson, who’d been at the helm since 2014. She has spent the past few months listening to Gleaners employees and visiting community partners.
Demand for food assistance remains high, despite fewer donations
Demand for food support has leveled off since the SNAP confusion last fall, though it remains elevated, according to estimates from Gleaners’ and its partners. The need is expected to remain high, Moloney said.
“There is elevated need and families are being put into situations where they have to make difficult choices and often make challenging trade-offs between food and other essential needs and so it’s critical for responders, like Gleaners, to ensure that we are providing a consistent source of support,” she said.
More than 1.5 million people in Michigan struggled to put food on the table, according to 2023 data from Feeding America.
Gleaners typically sees demand increase in the summer when students don’t have school meals, and families may see higher child care costs. Gleaners has a Hunger Free Summer matching gift campaign to support children when they are out of school.
The organization has seen fewer food donations from major sources.
Last year, donated food declined by more than 9 million pounds, including from the federal government, manufacturers, farmers and retailers, “creating a gap,” Moloney said. Of that, Gleaners saw a decrease of more than 5 million pounds of food from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the 2025 fiscal year. Federal donations of food has historically accounted for up to 30% of what the organization distributes. Gleaners, she said, doesn’t have “any indication that USDA donations will rebound.”
Gleaners has purchased more food to help fill the gap, but that’s not enough, she said. The food bank implemented a “sustainability plan” focused on sourcing, ramping up fundraising and volunteer support. Despite these hurdles, she said Gleaners distributed more than 47.4 million pounds of food in the recent fiscal year.
“Gleaners has been around for just about five decades, and so we’re prepared to navigate changing conditions,” she said.
Community partners are concerned about meeting needs and are on “high alert,” she said.
“We need to figure out how to respond and Gleaners is happy and willing to be the lead in our community to help have the conversation, to make sure that food security is at the front of the minds of people who are making the decisions, that food security is at the front of the mind of all of our officials, who are seeking election or re-election. It needs to be something that we’re talking about and thinking about because it’s not going to go away if we don’t work together,” she said.
Moloney takes over for Gerry Brisson, who’d been at the helm since 2014. She has spent the past few months listening to Gleaners employees and visiting community partners, she said.
Her previous work at the Catholic Foundation of Michigan and Nazareth Farm, a nonprofit providing home repair in West Virginia, taught her that people couldn’t be economically secure if they didn’t have enough to eat. They weren’t struggling in poverty because they weren’t trying hard enough; it was because they didn’t have access to resources, like nutritious food. Moloney said her understanding of food as both “the core of living” and “the core of a good life” came from watching her parents, who were both teachers, make their kitchen table bigger with benches to accommodate more people.
“My family did not have a lot growing up, but there was always enough,” she said. “We didn’t wait for surplus to be generous and as a community, we shouldn’t wait for surplus to be generous. We need to be generous now.”
How to donate and volunteer
Moloney said Gleaners has to purchase more food to make up for the shortage of donated food. Gleaners spent an additional $2 million to buy food in the first five months of this fiscal year because of the pause in SNAP funding due to the government shutdown last fall. The food bank welcomes financial contributions and volunteers who can sort, pack, and distribute food. To donate or volunteer, go to Gleaners website: https://www.gcfb.org/
What is the Stamp Out Hunger food drive?
The Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers, takes place on the second Saturday of May. Letter carriers across the country collect non-perishable food donations at a time when pantries are depleted, and school lets out, according to a news release.
This year’s drive will take place on Saturday, May 9. Participants can leave non-perishable donations in a bag in their mailbox by then, and a mail carrier will pick it up.
Metro Detroit mail carriers will be participating, collecting food from mailboxes, porches or anywhere else households get mail, said Sandy Laemmel, president of the Detroit branch of the National Association of Letter Carriers, which represents about 2,800 letter carriers. All donations will go to Gleaners, she said. Items to donate include: peanut butter, canned meat, tuna, dried beans, and boxed and canned items.
“Letter carriers look into the eyes of hunger each and every step we make daily. From the senior citizen at their door waiting for their mail, to the child walking to and from school. From the unhoused veteran to the working poor. What some people drive through we walk through, neighborhoods filled with those in need,” she said in an email to the Free Press.
How to find food pantries, other resources
To find area food pantries and other resources, go to www.fbcmich.org/food-bank-network; www.pantrynet.org; www.forgottenharvest.org/find-food, or call the Michigan 211 line. Call locations ahead to confirm availability, hours and location.
Double Up Food Bucks, which matches SNAP benefits for produce purchases, has increased how much shoppers can earn to $50 a day – up from $20 before the SNAP disruption last fall – as of Friday, May 1, and until the foreseeable future. Frozen fruits and vegetables without added sugar, salt or oil are now eligible as well. For more information, go to doubleupfoodbucks.org/awareness-month.
Reach reporter Nushrat Rahman at nrahman@freepress.com.
