“Gleaning” is the collection of leftover crops from fields and orchards after they’ve been commercially harvested or from fields where it’s not economically profitable to harvest. Lots of food goes to waste right in our backyard because it’s not worth the time or money to pick, or because that good food doesn’t look good enough. A component of South Central Community Action Programs (SCCAP), The Gleaning Project is a community solution. We are looking at two problems here in South Central PA - food loss on farms and orchards, and hunger and malnutrition all over the place. We are going to find out how to make these two problems solve each other. In 2014, we gleaned 200,000 pounds of fresh, local, excess produce and delivered it to 54 hunger-relief programs. The only reason this was possible was 1,000+ hours of volunteer support. Our volunteers are the best ! We save all this good food with large groups of volunteers at all-you-can-pick farm and orchard parties and by fielding smaller teams for more targeted harvesting as well as running trucks and trailers around the counties to pick up excess food from larger packing houses and farms. We distribute that gleaned produce as quickly and efficiently as possible to the network of hunger-relief organizations that already exist in our area – food pantries, shelters, senior centers, community meals, and weekend backpack programs. We promote all our area’s growers; encourage more fresh, local produce consumption among all populations; and are looking, learning, and going about creating an all-around community solution to hunger and malnutrition, poverty, and food waste.
