The Glean Dream Team: Growing Community One Harvest at a Time🌾🥕💚
I’m off to Rhode Island to hang with gleaners, save veggies, and swap stories about turning farm leftovers into fresh hope!
Hello, gleaners, growers, food heroes, and change-makers,
Every Thursday, I volunteer at our local food pantry alongside a friend. Someone who is not just a fellow volunteer, but also a guest of the food pantry. Together, we lift heavy boxes filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, and nourishing staples, stocking the shelves for the families who rely on them.
It’s an important service, but it reminds me how upside-down things can feel. We produce so much food in this country, and still, too many people go hungry.
The numbers are hard to ignore. Over 41 million people in the U.S. struggle with hunger. Fresh fruits and vegetables are out of reach for many. Meanwhile, more than 10 million tons of perfectly good produce go to waste every year.
That’s where gleaners come in.
From small farms to backyard gardens, local pantries to big-hearted volunteers, there’s a growing movement of people working to change the story. Farmers and gardeners are sharing their extra harvests. Volunteers are picking produce before it goes to waste. And communities are coming together to get good food where it’s needed, faster, smarter, and with less waste.
That’s why I’m traveling across the country to Providence, Rhode Island, for the 2025 International Gleaning Symposium.
Why Gleaning Matters 🍎🍊🍋
In my life journey, I’ve always tried to live by a simple idea: If I see a problem, I become part of the solution. That’s how I found gleaning, or maybe it found me.
We discovered gleaning at Village Harvest in Mountain View, California. Today, it's the heart of Silicon Valley, home to tech giants and billionaires. Yet not too long ago, Mountain View was bursting with orchards and fertile fields. Over time, innovation and growth took hold, shaping the heart of Silicon Valley’s tech boom. Traces of the farming past remain and are reflected in its very street signs, Apple Tree Lane, Orange Tree Drive, Lime Tree Orchard Way. Many homes still feature lush gardens with fruit trees,
After moving to Oregon, we discovered the Portland Fruit Tree Project, continuing our commitment to gleaning. Gleaning is an ancient, powerful practice, harvesting surplus food and sharing it with those who need it most. It's what happens when neighbors help neighbors, and when no tomato, apple, or zucchini goes to waste.
That’s why I’m showing up in Rhode Island. To learn, to share, to connect with others doing this work across North America. To find inspiration, new tools, and fresh stories. And to keep walking the talk, one field, one table, one community at a time.
What Makes This Strategy Unique 🍏♻️🥗
Gleaning is more than just picking surplus produce. It’s about transforming waste into nourishment, communities into networks, and neighbors into changemakers. This strategy works because it’s built on simple, powerful principles:
Community-driven: Led by local volunteers and nonprofits working together.
Waste-fighting: Rescuing good food that would otherwise be lost.
Health-focused: Prioritizing fresh, nutritious produce for people in need.
Relationship-powered: Strengthening bonds between growers, gleaners, and food banks.
Scalable and adaptable: Gleaning works in backyards, small community gardens, and large agricultural operations.
The Association of Gleaning Organizations is building a powerful network, coast to coast, from the Pacific Northwest to New England. At this year’s Symposium, I join together with field leaders, experts, and non-profits to share insights, tackle challenges, and shape a stronger, more connected, hunger-fighting network.
What It Takes to Make a Difference 🍏🤝 🥕
Gleaning isn’t flashy, no ribbon-cutting, no headlines. But it’s fun. It’s rolling up your sleeves, filling crates with surplus squash, or knocking on a farmer’s door to ask, “Hey, can we help?”
It takes:
Coordination: Matching surplus crops with the people who need them.
Commitment: Showing up week after week, rain or shine.
Collaboration: Building trust with farmers, food pantries, and neighbors.
Creativity: From tech tools to storytelling, gleaners are always finding new ways to connect food with people.
But most of all, it takes people who care. That’s you. That’s me. That’s all of us, finding purpose in something as simple as feeding each other.
What You Can Do: Take Action With Me 🥕📸 📚
You don’t need to fly to Rhode Island to join the movement (though I’ll bring back stories for you!). Here are a few ways you can make a difference right now:
Volunteer: Look up gleaning or food rescue programs in your area. Many welcome folks of all ages and skill levels.
Talk to a Farmer: Got a local farm or garden? Ask if they ever have surplus, and help connect them to a food bank or gleaning group.
Educate: Share what you learn. Post about food waste and food justice. Tell your friends, your family, your local reps.
Donate: Support grassroots food justice organizations doing this work year-round.
Share Your Story: Have you gleaned? Received gleaned food? Seen waste turn into nourishment? I’d love to hear your story and drop a comment.
When we come together, we turn abundance into action, waste into nourishment, and hope into change