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Forgotten Harvest Feeds Victims Of Superstorm Sandy

DETROIT (WWJ) - A big shipment of food is leaving Detroit Friday and heading east -- courtesy of Forgotten Harvest. A 50-foot semi was loaded with 28,000 lbs. of fresh produce Friday morning and is now on its way to victims of Superstorm Sandy.

Forgotten Harvest spokesman John Owens said the hundreds of boxes of fresh tomatoes and peppers were all provided by donors. "This is going free to the residents of the city of New York -- a gift from the heart of Detroit," Owen told WWJ Newsradio 950's Pat Sweeting.

Volunteer Christine Scargall is on social security disability and can relate to the need.

"I go to the Covenant Ministries in Roseville and I do receive what they bring in there. I understand that today we're packaging up for Hurricane Sandy people and I love it," said Scargall. "They need to nourish themselves to be able to grow and rebuild."

Owens said donors really stepped up to ensure that they'd have plenty of stock to ship east while still providing the usual amount to local emergency food providers. "Once they heard City Harvest is the agency these will be going to ...  it's the second largest in the country and they are a sister organization of ours out there," he said.

Owens said several more deliveries will  take place over the next few weeks.  "They're just getting up in terms of their logistics, electricity where they can store this food."

Meantime, this week's nor'easter that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of new people on the East Coast, mostly in New York and New Jersey,  also has erased some of the progress made by utility crews still trying to get the power back on following Sandy. Some people, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have lost patience and are demanding investigations of utilities they say aren't working fast enough.

Find out how you can help Forgotten Harvest in their mission to relieve hunger by rescuing surplus food, visit this link.

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