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The Making a Difference Foundation (MADF) and Eloise’s Cooking Pot Food Bank (ECP) began their gleaning program in 2024. All gleaned food goes directly to ECP’s produce market where they serve about 70,000 people monthly. While MADF does not have any issues distributing gleaned produce, they occasionally will have to pass on gleaning opportunities that are too far away due to volunteer time restrictions and transportation needs. The main partners that produce is gleaned from are local to Pierce County. Food is gleaned from a variety of growers including commercial and small farmers, churches, orchards, community gardeners, and residential growers. A notable gleaning contributor for MADF was Harvest Pierce County who has a well established gleaning program and sustained donors. On weeks MADF had fewer planned gleans, attending Harvest Pierce County’s harvest days provided a regularly scheduled source of produce that benefited ECP clients.

Currently, the AmeriCorps member manages the coordination surrounding gleaning events while the MADF gleaning coordinator attends all events and is responsible for the transportation of the gleaned produce back to the food bank.

**To improve the MADF gleaning model, the AmeriCorps member and gleaning coordinator have been working together to create a more effective online system that will improve efficiency and ease of gleaning sign up for both volunteers and donors.**

Field Guide

Once a gleaning event is scheduled and volunteers are obtained for the event, the Gleaning Coordinator is responsible for facilitating the event and bringing everything on the to-bring list. Upon arrival, the donating grower provides the gleaning coordinator with instructions about the crop location, harvesting best practices, and the washing station (if available). After all produce is harvested and washed, it is weighed and transported back to the ECP Food Bank. MADF will provide the gleaning coordinator with a company vehicle to transport all gleaned produce.

In the 2024 gleaning season, MADF adopted five trees from Curran Apple Orchard. This partnership resulted in over 2,500 pounds of apples for ECP clients. MADF was responsible for the gleaning of apples as well as the upkeep of these trees (mulching, pruning, etc). Tools for tree upkeep were provided by the orchard. Additionally, Curran Apple Orchard hosts a cider pressing event for tree adopters every year. Maintaining this partnership and coordinating this event is highly recommended for the year two AmeriCorps member to engage volunteers and acquire fresh juice and produce for clients.

Items to Bring to Every Gleaning Event:

• Produce collection bins
• Rubber bands
• Latex/non-latex or gardening gloves
• First aid kit
• Water and snacks for volunteers

**Volunteers and donors are paramount to the success of the MADF gleaning program. Creating a new MADF gleaning program website will be imperative to simplifying the sign up process for volunteers and donors alike. Proceed to “Gleaning Volunteer Outreach” and “Gleaning Donor Outreach” for more information.**

Data Collection

When food is donated or delivered to the food bank, multiple avenues of data collection are required. Firstly, MADF requires that an “In Kind Donation Form” is filled out. This includes information about the donor, poundage of the harvest, and donation dates. In order to keep track of gleaning, donor, and volunteer data throughout the gleaning season, an Excel doc or Google spreadsheet is highly recommended. In addition to the donor information logged on the “In Kind Donation Form,” note if this was the first glean or donation from a certain location, any notes for additional gleaning dates in the future, and if the donor was residential or commercial. Regarding volunteers, it’s important to note how many and for how long they are serving at individual gleans, their contact information, and date they were recruited.