The Downriver Fish & Loaves Food Pantry continues to have a huge positive impact on the Downriver region, according to Executive Director Stephanie McNees, who spoke to the City Council last month.

The 501(c)3 nonprofit organization has been “ensuring no one goes hungry” in the area since 2008. Fish & Loaves optimizes the client-choice pantry and drive-thru distribution model to provide a wide variety of nutritious and sustaining food options for families and individuals in need, according to McNees’s presentation.

Located at 25670 Northline Road in Taylor, the pantry acts like a small grocery store, where the needy can go in and make the choices they prefer. The distribution center depends on dedicated volunteers (McNees is the only fulltime employee) and donors and partners.

The client-choice pantry adjoins the new Gleaners Food Bank warehouse and is open Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesday and Fridays. The Fish & Loaves program also runs the very popular produce-dominated “Fresh Market Saturdays” on the weekends.

The Fresh Market program provides 25 pounds of fresh produce and a gallon of milk to anyone in need each weekend. On average, 850 families were served per weekend last year.

Taylor is a heavy benefactor of the program.

“Everyone’s numbers pale in comparison to Taylor,” she told the council. “We’re the largest community choice food pantry in the state.”

Fish & Loaves distributed approximately 1.2 million pounds of food to 18,325 households in Taylor last year. As McNees noted, others did pale in comparison: Allen Park (approximately 92,000 pounds across nearly 1,200 households), Brownstown (134,000 pounds/1,900 households), Dearborn Heights (317,000/5,000), Romulus (2349,000/4,800), Southgate (166,000/2,300) and Woodhaven (34,000/432).

Taylor residents account for 41 percent of those served and 34 percent of all food distributed.

Overall, Fish & Loaves distributed 3.5M pounds of food in 2025, serving 45,808 households. It also served 90,578 individuals.

But those numbers aren’t easily reached.

Through its partnership with Gleaners, Fish & Loaves purchases food at discount prices. Overall, its purchases average 67 cents per pound. And none of this is possible without a large group of volunteers who worked approximately 25,000 hours in 2025.

Fish & Loaves offers an entire slate of sponsorship packages, from music bingo to a 250 Club Raffle, Happy Soles 5K Run/Walk, Par for the Course Golf Outing and, of course, Santa’s Magic Forest. All of these are listed on its website (flcfp.org) under events.

Santa’s Magic Forest, widely known as Downriver’s best indoor holiday display, hosted approximately 4,000 visitors and earned approximately $30,000 in 2025. It was the event’s first year being hosted by the Taylor School District in the old Eureka Heights Elementary School on Eureka Road, west of Telegraph.

“And I’m happy to say that we’ve confirmed that we’ll remain there in 2026, too,” McNees said recently. “The building worked out very well for the display, especially the way we were able to use some of the classroom space.”

To volunteer at Fish & Loaves, visit flcfp.org to register or contact volunteer@flcfp.org. Individuals, families, companies and/or organizations can become volunteers.

To become a donor, you have options including becoming a monthly donor by sponsoring an event. Again, contact the organization at flcfp.org or email smcnees@flcfp.org.

Lastly, Fish & Loaves welcomes organized food drives. To organize a food drive, visit flcfp.org or contact bcooper@flcfp.org.