Overview: In order to take advantage of the successful gleaning program and bypass the storage limitations of food relief agencies, volunteer-based workshops can process excess gleaned produce into shelf-stable items for distribution and teach food preservation and waste prevention..
Historically, Florida has been a citrus mecca, and this produce was the bulk of SoSA’s gleaning. However, with back-to-back hurricanes and the spread of greening disease, this is no longer the case. The continuing pattern of hurricanes and other natural disasters has imperiled SoSA’s primary…
Beyond introducing new vegetables and working to convince food bank clients to take home unfamiliar produce, education can also include food preservation – what to do with excess fruit and veggies, or how to make the abundance of one season last into leaner times. Canning,…
Spreading the Word About Your Program At the end of the day, the whole point of gleaning is getting food to those in need. Thus, it is crucial for the success of any gleaning program to have strong connections to the food banks and meal…
Developing a Program Before starting to glean at a farmers market, make sure to contact the manager of the market and get their approval. When you first arrive at the market, go around to the different grower booths with materials about your program and talk…
Techniques for Harvesting Crops by Hand When farmers allow volunteers into their fields and orchards to harvest vegetables or fruits, they naturally want to avoid damage to crops providing their livelihood. Meeting with the farmer ahead of a gleaning event is vital when the farmer…
Talk straight, be available and amenable, and use infrastructure to your advantage, if you can handle food by the pallet you can benefit from relationships with larger farms that can save labor and other costs. Talk straight by doing exactly what you say. When working…
The main framework of a Victory Gardens program is that outreach is done to connect with local gardeners, who are told that they can donate produce to their food banks. Then they are given information about where to drop off donations. It is good to…
Economical harvesting tools can be found anywhere. It is possible to come up with a useful tool for any type of harvesting. When trying to come up with tools they typically fall into two categories: knives and others. Knives Knives are extremely useful as they…
Permaculture for Sustainable Food Sources Mother Nature did it first, which experts recognized while developing permaculture as an agricultural system. Basically, food growing areas are designed to mimic nature, with integration of land, water, and plants. Efficient use of resources maximizes food production while minimizing…