In an age when thousands of Americans go without food every day, it is distressing to note that up to 20 percent of the American harvest each year is left to rot. It is hard to imagine that thousands of cans and packages of edible food in canneries, packing houses, food markets, and restaurants are routinely cast aside. Yet, research has found this to be the case.

Why the waste? Often produce may not meet market standards due to shape, size, or quantity. Other times, produce may not be harvested due to a lack of farm labor. Overproduction, dented cans, broken boxes, and expired marketing dates are more reasons why perfectly edible food is disposed of. The challenge is how to retrieve this discarded, yet edible, food and distribute it to the needy. The answer is known as "gleaning."

"Gleaning" is an organized activity in which hundreds of people collect unused and discarded food and provide it to those in need. Through gleaning, needy individuals, including low-income and unemployed persons, can receive agricultural products from farmers, processors, or retailers without charge. There are many groups, such as food banks and other charities involved with feeding the poor, that organize volunteer gleaning programs. During recent years, some USDA agencies have become key players in the gleaning effort.

Section 1774 of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 includes a Gleaning Clearinghouse provision. This authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to provide information and technical assistance to public and nonprofit groups that want to participate in gleaning projects. The Cooperative Extension System (CES), through its national educational network, is providing information to interested groups and individuals on ways to conduct gleaning programs. Extension has served as a resource on the Executive Council of Feeding Sites—bringing food providers and the "hunger and poverty network," the public, and other groups together. Extension field faculty also provide information to farmers and growers on gleaning legislation and to producers and processors about the needs of the poor.

Active State Programs

A 1992 CES survey of State gleaning efforts showed that 23 States had some form of gleaning program. The wide range of State gleaning activities includes setting up soup kitchens to preserve excess food, helping to train Master Food Preservers, and providing technical assistance on food preservation. CES staff members also serve as liaison with the State Department of Agriculture.

In Georgia, excess, prepared, and perishable foods are being collected from food service donors and distributed to feeding sites. Extension then contacts the recipients, encouraging them to sign up for a program of their interest, such as the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).

Professionals at Oregon State University's Agriculture Experiment Station take a different approach to gleaning. They arrange for teams from the Gleaning Network, Inc., a three-county effort in Oregon, to glean the garden at the Experiment Station in Medford, OR, as well as the Master Gardener areas. For years, it has been a cooperative effort boasting positive results.

"All of our gleaning team members fall within USDA poverty guidelines," said Carol McLaughlin, program coordinator of the Gleaning Network, Inc. 'They keep the gleanings they collect. Any excess is given to our organization, which then distributes it to team adoptees."

The adoptees, McLaughlin explains, are individuals who are at least 55 years old, or disabled, and who fall within the poverty guidelines. Teams are organized according to neighborhoods in Klamath, Jackson, and Josephine counties, and may consist of as few as 5 or as many as 48 households. To prepare for gleaning at the Agriculture Experiment Station and Master Gardener areas, team members must participate in a 2-day Gleaning Network training program in which they are taught how to collect produce without damaging crops.

"We usually glean between 10 and 15 times a year at the Experiment Station and Master Gardener areas. This year we collected tomatoes, onions, squash, green peppers, two varieties of corn, and three varieties of green beans." said McLaughlin.

The concept of "harvesting after the harvest" is popular in other States as well. Washington State University Cooperative Extension personnel developed a project to specially train individuals to harvest produce left in fields and orchards. A distributor from the local area emergency food banks comes directly to the fields to collect the harvest. The food banks then immediately distribute the surplus produce to homeless people or others in need of food.

Steven Garrett is the supervisor, Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program in Pierce County, Washington State University Cooperative Extension Service. Local EFNEP personnel and volunteers do the gleaning.

"In 1992, EFNEP personnel and volunteers gleaned 160,000 pounds of leftover fruits and vegetables," reports Garrett. "We had 96 volunteers giving a total of 4,600 hours. Seventy-five percent of the food collected went to the Emergency Food Network in Pierce County, which distributed it to local food banks. The other 25 percent went to the volunteer gleaners."

Training the Gleaners

Garrett recalled that prior to 1990 local farmers had been somewhat reluctant to allow gleaners on their property for fear of potential crop and property damage. In the spring of 1990, David Ottey, executive director of the Emergency Food Network, and Margaret Movius, who was then the EFNEP supervisor in the Pierce County Cooperative Extension Office, decided to train volunteers—recruited from the county's EFNEP program—in the proper way to harvest crops. They also contacted area farmers to assure them that, because of the training, their farm property wouldn't be damaged by the volunteer gleaners. As a result of this effort, more local farmers and Tacoma-area home gardeners were willing to invite gleaners onto their properties.

Besides collecting fresh fruit and vegetables for themselves and for other needy individuals, the EFNEP volunteer gleaners also have the option of taking classes in food preservation, which are conducted by an Extension volunteer food advisor.

Throughout the Nation, more and more farmers, farmers' markets, producers, retailers, institutions, restaurants, and backyard gardeners are contributing to gleaning programs, as this humanitarian effort continues to become more popular. Brochures, fliers, toll-free hotlines, and promotional videos are just some of the means by which county Extension offices are getting the word out on gleaning.