It's Gleaning Time Once Again

[rhett o rick]

According to Wikipedia, "Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest."

Every year at this time we can see fruit trees where the owner has left fruit to rot after they have taken what they need or want. Please ask the owners if you can pick the fruit and deliver to your local foodbank. At the same time some gardeners have more zucchini than they can use.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are desperately needed at foodbanks. They always get lots of canned goods but fresh produce is highly valued.

If you are unfamiliar with gleaning, there are some good videos on the youtubes:

Support your local foodbank.

[elleng]

1. Gleaners,

after.Millet

[Blue_In_AK]

4. I think of Ruth and Boaz

(Lots of Bible in my youth. )

[ChazII]

6. Me, too.

The Bible instructed the farmers to leave gleanings so that the poor and widows could gather food.

[rhett o rick]

9. Thanks for posting that. nm

[merrily]

2. Great idea! Even people in cities are going out to farm territory this

time of year to give the kiddies the experience of picking apples or getting pumpkins from a farm.

Another suggestion: if the supermarket where you shop most has no program, you might try to work with management to establish one. My former supermarket, part of a small chain, gave shoppers the option of adding a dollar to their bill. The supermarket then used that money to prepare bags of groceries--at supermarket cost--that went to food banks. Whole Foods bought them out.

[rhett o rick]

3. Our foodbank has deals with local stores to "glean" if you will. We even get meat but not

often.

Using kid labor is a great idea. Take them to the country and get them to think it's fun. Actually kids love bring food in to give to the foodbank.

[merrily]

5. I just googled "inexpensive food boxes" because

I remembered something I'd read years ago, but could not remember the name. Not a food bank, but buying a bunch of groceries at a supposedly great price.


I also got these hits. Many are religion-affiliated, but I don't think people wanting to buy the groceries need to join. Maybe you get a free pamphlet or something of that sort with your groceries?

https://jolinfoodbox.com/

http://www.needhelppayingbills.com/html/cheap_groceries.html (not only food)

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/box-215098-food-riley.html

http://onefatherslove.com/Sacramento_food_boxes

http://www.gospelfoodministries.com/

Buyer beware though: I also found this:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/30/georgia-angel-food-ministries/2739077/

That was the name I heard of years ago for cheap groceries could not remember: Angel Food Ministries. Turns out, since I first heard of them, the founder has been sentenced to prison for defrauding donors and volunteers. Sigh.

Anyway, people who need some help but are not eligible for food banks might want to check out some of the above links and also google with the name of their own location. Ditto people who know someone who might need this info.

[merrily]

7. More food suggestions:

Try to get your state legislature to pass a law protecting restauranteurs who donate cooked food to shelters from liability. Then, organize volunteers to pick up the food from the restaurants and bring it to shelters.

Believe it or not, a high schooler came up with this whole shebang and put it into motion with her state legislator. Bet it looked great on her college application.

Are you moving?

Call your local moving company and see if they are in a program started by some movers who noticed that people who were moving often threw away a lot of food. The movers then organized a program of getting the people to give the food to the movers, instead of discarding it. Then the moving company drops ioff the food at a nearby shelter or food bank.

[rhett o rick]

8. Great ideas. Thank you. As for shelters, our county doesn't yet have a permanent shelter.

We use the lobby of our foodbank during sever weather in the winter. But getting food from restaurants is a great idea. There are a number of restaurants that are very generous when we have fund raisers. I will look into it.

[merrily]

11. In the case I described, the idea was to go around at the end of the restaurant's day

and take the cooked food that the place hadn't served.

In business areas, lunch is the big rush, especially for the more inexpensive places. They close no later than 6 or 7, some as early as 3 or 4. It's stuff that would ordinarily hit the dumpster because they are not going to serve re-heated food the next day. Bakeries would be another source.

But, as to cooked food in particular, the restaurants were leery of potential liability. So, she got a law passed saying they'd have no liability for donated food. Since they are not getting paid for the food either way, there's no incentive for them to donate questionable food, so it would be a honest mistake.

[rhett o rick]

13. I fully understood. My point is that in our county there'd be no place to take the food.

We don't have shelters. We've tried but have been halted for one reason or other.

[merrily]

14. No soup kitchen type places either? That's a real shame.

[rhett o rick]

16. We do have soup kitchens, but they prepare their own food. I don't know if they'd

be interested in interfacing with restaurants. Occasionally we get frozen meat in large packages and it isn't possible for us to repackage smaller, so we donate it to the soup kitchens.

[merrily]

18. It's great that you interface with them so waste is minimalized.

Obviously, I wish you all the best with the great work you are doing.

[rhett o rick]

19. Thanks. It's a lot of work and frustrating at times, but very rewarding. nm

[merrily]

20. Good work usually is rewarding.

It's like exercise. If you work hard, it pays off and sometimes, you even get a little natural high off it.

[merrily]

12. Another thought about restaurants.

Boston has Restaurant Week, which has morphed into two weeks. Now, it is just restaurant week, but originally it was charitable.

A relatively famous local food critic had passed on, leaving part of his money to a charitable foundation. Some restauranteurs got together and decided to do a restaurant week to raise money for his foundation.

Anyway, they did a very pared down menu, three courses, 2 or 3 choices per course, maybe even only one choice for the dessert course, and offered that as a prix fixe option, with a low price. The special menu may or may not have a notation asking that the diner tip as though they were paying full price. At the same time, they offered their regular menu. And a portion of the gross proceeds of the prix fixe go to charity. In your case, hopefully the food bank. All restaurants who participated charged about $20 for lunch and $30 for dinner (though I think that may go up soon).

The week brought out a lot of people who might not otherwise have dined out on, say a Tuesday night. And a picky eater *cough* like my husband *cough* is likely to order off the full menu to get more choices. Moreover, in the case of pricier places, it gets people to try them who might not take a risk on a new place at the regular prices. So, the restaurants don't get hurt too badly. And then, there is the good will and p.r. they build for being good guys and gals and doing something for charity. So, it's a positive hat trick. The restaurants get something, the diners get a great meal at a good price and get to explore new places without a big investment and the charity gets something. (And, if the charity ever runs a catered fundraiser, maybe they will use one of the participating restaurants.)

So if you are going to talk to restaurants, and your area does not already have a restaurant week, you might explore the above with them.

[rhett o rick]

15. Thank you for the post. That concept sounds familiar. I think it was tried here but half-heartedly

and didn't go over. I will ask about it. One of our problems is that, although we have loads of volunteers that help with the work, we need more that will take on organizational tasks. Hey, thanks for all the input.

[merrily]

17. My pleasure. You mean, organizational tasks like convincing the restaurants to participate?

One of the things Boston City Hall has undertaken is to keep track of volunteer posts that need filling. So, people who want to help kind of now where to call to see who needs help that they may be interested in providing. Do you know if there is something like that where you are?

[rhett o rick]

10. kick