Washington Gleaning Network
The Washington Gleaning Network is a network of organizations throughout Washington state who glean and support the work of gleaning locally. Together, we are working to grow the gleaning movement and support the great work that gleaners do, to ultimately get more fresh local foods into the hands of those who need it most.
Gleaning is the practice of collecting excess food from farms, gardens, and other sources to donate to those who need it. This can include food that is close to it’s “sell by” date or crops that have been harvested but are maybe to small, too big or the wrong shape for the market, but are perfectly edible.
The Washington Gleaning Network began as a brainstorm with AGO in 2021 on how to support the gleaning movement in a holistic way with regional or state-wide networks. The first pilot began in 2023 here in WA state between AGO and HAH. WA is particularly well suited with, as you will be aware, a very forward thinking hunger relief culture and some really robust agriculture. The gleaning movement is strong in WA state – where most have 3 or 5 or maybe 10 gleaning organizations, WA state has more than 40!`
We connect gleaners to resources. We connect farmers to gleaners. We connect volunteers to opportunities. As a network, we are regularly learning about important gleaning topics like safety in the field, distributing foods and gleaning from the farmers point of view. During the harvest season, we get together and get our hands in the dirt and glean, bringing that food back to our communities. And we allow a space for gleaners to come together to support each other with their challenges and their strengths.
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter! Fill in the form below the map at the bottom of this page.
We are always looking for collaborative opportunities, to share resources and to connect folks together. So, please let us know when your organization needs help and we can work to redirect resources. Contact: gleaning@harvestagainsthunger.org
What We're Up To:
Upcoming Meetings
A Farmer’s POV on Gleaning
Please join us Thursday October 17th at 2pm (PST) as the farm team at 21 Acres shares the farmer’s perspective on the value of gleaning and minimization of food waste, given the realities of farming, as well as the importance of food access and having good partners in the region when doing this work.
Thursday November 14th at 10:00am (PST) will feature Tony Zappia of Common Fruit, Ottawa CA, to discuss innovative software he has built for gleaners!
The tools we use to do our work matter! This month we will look at a new online tool that automates harvest coordination tasks – and, which has the potential to help tell a bigger picture story statewide by gathering the data from different projects, cities, and counties.The team from Common Fruit will join us for a platform walk-through during which you can explore how repetitive actions like sign-ups, ripeness checks, waitlist management, and stats reporting can be automated, for starters. Your questions and visions of how your work could be more efficient will be welcome. If you’d like a sneak peak of the platform in advance, you can find it here – advanced review is not required.
For the meeting in November, the team at Common Fruit would love it if you could register for this in advance. Registering for November’s WGN meeting will enable the team to provide a more effective and interactive experience for you during the meeting. Pre-registration is helpful, but not required – if you do not register you can still join the conversation and watch the demonstration, but you will not receive interactive elements or have the ability to explore the platform on your own.
If you plan on attending the November meeting, please complete this quick survey: Washington Gleaning Network: registration for common fruit demo
On Thursday, December 12th at 10am, we will chat with Billy McCarthy, Food Safety Project Manager of National Farmers Union (NFU), as he shares his expertise with food safety, tools and techniques for gleaners after harvesting produce. This meeting was cancelled in September and has been rescheduled for December.
On January 16th, 2025 at 10am, come have a conversation with Executive Director of Village Harvest, Craig Diserens. This discussion will give us a chance to pull back and see the big picture of where we fit in the larger food system/hunger relief system so that we can plan our path forward.
Come ready with your questions for Craig!
Some unfortunate news has come to light from our apple grower in Cashmere! The frost is coming faster than expected, and the farmer has decided to hire a team to harvest the apples early, so this glean has been cancelled. Thankfully, he will still donate the apples so that’s great news.
Let’s look forward to gleaning with them next year!
Recordings
Check out our YouTube playlist for recordings from our previous monthly meetings.
Resources
Please have a look through our accumulation of a variety of gleaning resources from templates to legal issues to guidebooks.
Check out this section for a list of funding sources ranging from grant search sites to funding initiatives and related articles.
Check out these resources on advocacy to learn more about creating positive change in regulation and policy.
More than 40 organizations throughout Washington state are currently members of the Washington Gleaning Network.
See the interactive map below for more details including organization and any listed contact person(s).