The Food Bank council of Michigan (FBCM) is made up of ten member food banks. The FBCM is a statewide charitable organization gathering food and funds to help stock the shelves of its member food banks. In 1997, our members served over 2,500 local charities across the state such as soup kitchens, shelters, church pantries and senior programs and distributed over 48 million pounds of food to agencies in all 83 counties in Michigan.

Programs that help alleviate hunger in Michigan include:

• America's Second Harvest - The nation's largest domestic hunger relief organization. Through a network of over 200 food banks and food-rescue programs, emergency food assistance is provided to more than 23 million hungry Americans each year, eight million of whom are children.

• Michigan Harvest Gathering - The funds from this event are used for transportation of food products to food banks and purchases of hard-to-obtain food items.

• Food Aid - The Michigan Grocers Association (MGA) has been a long-standing partner with the Food Bank Council of Michigan. Each year, during the month of July, MGA promotes Food Aid. The funds from this campaign go towards purchasing hard-to-obtain food items.

• Michigan Mobile Food Bank - Transportation is the one of the most important and most costly elements of food banking. This program provides our member food banks with the necessary funds to cover these costs.

• Michigan Agricultural Surplus System (MASS) - An innovative partnership between Michigan food banks, the agricultural community and food processors.  This partnership, funded by a grant from the Michigan Department of Agriculture since 1990, works to procure unmarketable yet nutritious agricultural surplus for Michigan food banks.  Food from Michigan fields may be turned into shelf stable products or washed and packaged for fresh consumption.