By Stephanie Kardos, Harvest Capacity Developer
Gleaning: 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.
Gleaning has been practiced for centuries and is now being reinvented and revitalized here in Washington and beyond. In fact, gleaning has become common practice at local food banks and distribution centers around the country. This modern revival has birthed new and innovative strategies for urban settings, such as bike gleaning and urban fruit tree gleaning.
This past June Rotary First Harvest and Washington Food Coalition held the second annual Pacific Northwest Gleaners Summit at TaborSpace in Portland, OR. Gleaners from all around the West Coast came together to share and be a part of the growing gleaning community.
As the 2014 Harvest Against Hunger capacity VISTA, I had the amazing opportunity to organize and host the event. The energy at the Gleaners Summit was infectious. Everyone was excited to network and share about all of the good work they do. We had two panel talks during the day and breakout discussions in the afternoon.
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Special guests Benjamin Rasmus and Heather Hoffman made a stop in Portland for the summit as part of their awareness bike campaign: Bike Against Hunger. This campaign involves bicycling from Seattle to Washington, DC to raise awareness about food waste and gleaning. Some of the attendees even rode with them after the summit to the after party at Cartlandia.
Valuable information and stories were shared about gleaning and gleaning best practices. Several main topics included:
purchasing food directly from farmers and sustainability of projects. Click here to visit Rotary First Harvest’s website for more details on this year’s takeaways as well as the overall summary of the 2013 Gleaners Conference. If you are interested in learning more about gleaning practices and incorporating gleaning at your food bank or organization contact me at skardos@wafoodcoalition.org or visit the Rotary First Harvest website www.firstharvest.org.
Gleaning has been practiced for centuries and is now being reinvented and revitalized here in Washington and beyond. In fact, gleaning has become common practice at local food banks and distribution centers around the country. This modern revival has birthed new and innovative strategies for urban settings, such as bike gleaning and urban fruit tree gleaning.
This past June Rotary First Harvest and Washington Food Coalition held the second annual Pacific Northwest Gleaners Summit at TaborSpace in Portland, OR. Gleaners from all around the West Coast came together to share and be a part of the growing gleaning community. As the 2014 Harvest Against Hunger capacity VISTA, I had the amazing opportunity to organize and host the event. The energy at the Gleaners Summit was infectious. Everyone was excited to network and share about all of the good work they do. We had two panel talks during the day and breakout discussions in the afternoon. .jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*)
Special guests Benjamin Rasmus and Heather Hoffman made a stop in Portland for the summit as part of their awareness bike campaign: Bike Against Hunger. This campaign involves bicycling from Seattle to Washington, DC to raise awareness about food waste and gleaning. Some of the attendees even rode with them after the summit to the after party at Cartlandia. Valuable information and stories were shared about gleaning and gleaning best practices. Several main topics included:
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