|
Hunger is an ongoing problem in Vermont. Although we have many food security systems in place, 10% of Vermonters still need to access emergency food sources (like food shelves) every year. And the challenge isn’t just in getting food to people who need it – it’s also in bringing a varied, nutritious, satisfying meal to their plates.
Some Vermonters are responding to the challenges of hunger (or the more official term “food insecurity”) through gleaning. Gleaning programs recover food that isn’t marketable, is uneconomical to harvest or is farm surplus, and brings it to organizations in need of food donations. Unmarketable items might include farmers’ market leftovers, food from fields that have been picked through already, or produce in a size that doesn’t make the grade. Recipients of gleaned food include food pantries, Head Start programs, senior centers, childcare centers and more.
While many people see gleaning as a novel way to get fresh local foods to everyone in our communities, it has ancient roots. The Society of St. Andrew, one of this country’s most prolific gleaning groups (moving over 15 million pounds of food each year), points to gleaning references in the Old Testament. And today the movement is become well established here in Vermont. The two largest organizations are Salvation Farms, which gleaned around 50,500 pounds in 2007, and Healthy City, which gleans 30,000 pounds from Intervale farms (visit: www.salvationfarms.org & www.intervale.org).
Tools are now available to help any group of volunteers start community-gleaning programs. At the NOFA-VT Winter Conference (Feb 16th and 17th) Salvation Farms and Healthy City will team up to present a workshop with the title “You Can Help Feed Your Community Through Gleaning” (www.nofavt.org). Salvation Farms is also developing a manual for communities interested in starting a program.
Theresa Snow, Salvation Farms’ founder, hopes to see organized gleaning spread out to cover all areas of the state. She recommends those interested seek out the resources listed above and take time during slow seasons, like now, to plan ahead. For example, leaders should consider the following issues:
- Usually gleaned food is perishable and may be reaching the end of its freshness. Groups need a system in place to either get the food quickly to its end user or process it in a way that extends its usefulness.
- Many different types of groups can benefit from receiving gleaned foods. Often these programs will have limited hours for accepting and distributing food, so matching their schedule, with gleaners’ schedules, with farmers’ schedules requires preparation before the growing season.
- A project leader needs to establish and maintain a good relationship with each farmer. This relationship includes being respectful of the farmer’s time and being very careful to only glean the areas designated for gleaning. Knowledge of an array of produce and how to collect it will be important for any project leader.
- Farmers can get credit from food donations in at least two ways; one, by receiving a verbal or written Thank You at meals, events, and other presentations of their food and, two, through tax credits if the foods goes to non-profits (note: it is important for these recipient organizations to keep good records).
Look for more on local food and food insecurity in the next Agriview.
Do you have a community project, event, or local foods story that you would like to see in Agriview’s next Web Extra? E-mail Helen.jordan@state.vt.us |
