Farm Bureau Insurance Donates Refrigerated Trailer Full Of Apples To Food Bank Council Of Michigan

Farm Bureau Insurance is donating a refrigerated food trailer to the food bank council of Michigan to assist in ending hunger in the state of Michigan and distributing fresh fruits and vegetables throughout the state.

“The Agent Charitable fund was formed in 2017 by insurance agents in the state of Michigan. So, Farm Bureau insurance slogan is” we are Michigan’s insurance company, so we only insure in the state of Michigan. So agents got together and said: “what can we do to make a difference in the entire state of Michigan, instead of just in our communities”, so the agent charitable fund was formed in the mission of ending hunger in Michigan” said Bobby Barrigan, President of Agent Charitable Fund and owner of Farm Bureau insurance.”

To work towards their goal, Farm Bureau insurance has agreed to donate five refrigerated trailers to the food bank of Eastern Michigan and this recent donation will be their fourth one.

“The funds that Farm Bureau agents raise, purchased the trailer and then we work with local businesses. Omega Electric has helped us with very single trailer since the beginning. They’ve wrapped them for us and then we also work with local farmers or in this case, Male’s construction” said Barrigan.

The local farmers they’ve recruited will assist in filling the truck with apples from River Ridge Produce.

“What we did was, we partnered with River Ridge Produce out of Sparta and they are an apple grower that has donated apples; which is partial donation, partial sponsorship from Michigan farm Bureau. Michigan Farm Bureau is an organization that started from dairy farmers and crop farmers and vegetable farmers that we’re looking to organize to be able to better serve the agriculture community for different reasons” said David Tolan, County President of Huron Shores County Farm Bureau.

Once the truck is filled with River Ridge apples, it will make its way to the food bank council in flint to be unloaded.

“So the agriculture connubity in Michigan has really stepped up for every trailer. We’ve had one filled with pork products, we’ve ha done filled with milk products and then the one right before this one, we actually worked with our home office staff out of Lansing and we raised a little over $19,000 and we purchased food with that. So every, all four of these trucks, we’ve been able to donate to the food bank council in Michigan full of some type of product” said Barrigan.

The Northeastern Food Bank covers 600 partners throughout Northeastern Michigan and this newest donation will help continue feeding the community.