gan food bank, head- More than 50 million in Illinois, Indiana, quartered in Comstock, Nebraska, Ohio and provides more than pro- Americans, including Pennsylvania (see Endduce, with donations 17 million children, Hunger.org). from manufacturers, Jason Brown, a wholesalers, restaurants experience hunger or former St. Louis Rams’ and stores adding meat, center with a five-year, the risk of hunger dairy, frozen foods and $37 million contract, every day. bread. Volunteers repacktraded his cleats for a age donations into usable tractor. Now in LouisTheHungerSite. sizes; do clerical work; burg, North Carolina, pick produce; and sort, he calls First Fruits GreaterGood.com pack, store and deliver Farm home and plans food. to donate the first fruits of every harvest to While most of the nonprofit’s yield is food pantries. He learned about farming distributed through 1,100 food pantries, from YouTube videos, computer searches shelters and soup kitchens, many can’t and other farmers. The first crop on five store perishables. Working with church- acres yielded 100,000 pounds of sweet es, schools and community centers, the potatoes; Brown gave it all away. With organization’s mobile units deliver fresh 1,000 acres to farm, he’s set to tackle food directly to recipients, often the same hunger big time. day it is donated. Each unit can carry It doesn’t require a big time food for 100 to 200 families. This local commitment to help feed the hungry. Feeding America outreach group serves Backyard gardeners can start by planting an estimated 492,000 people each year. an extra row (Tinyurl.com/PlantRow The Society of St. Andrew often ForHungry). Since its inception in 1995, rescues the “ugly” produce—potatoes the Plant a Row program has collectively not well-shaped for chips, oversized turned 20 million pounds of produce peaches, too-long green beans, too-ripe into 80 million meals. strawberries and apples that aren’t pic- Offer to pick a neighbor’s excess ture perfect. “Farmers get a tax benefit produce or herbs, and then check with and people get fresh food,” says Bruce others nearby. Get the kids involved. Oland, the Triangle Area coordina- Volunteer at or make a donation to a tor in North Carolina. “Farmers let us soup kitchen. Gather a group of friends, know when they’ll harvest a crop and family, members of an organization or we have a few days to glean what’s left congregation to glean or repackage before they replant. We pick anything produce one day a month. If a local edible—kale, lettuce, tomatoes, canta- food pantry can’t accept perishables, loupe and lots of sweet potatoes.” In a leverage social media to spread the single harvested field, volunteers have word about which day free food will gleaned seven tons of sweet potatoes. be available at a church or school. Ev The society’s gleaning and feeding eryone can help. No one should go to ministry has regional offices in Alabama, bed hungry. Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee Connect with freelance writer Avery and Virginia. Additional areas are located Mack at AveryMack@mindspring.com.
Handy Resources Download a free gleaning guide and handbook at EndHunger.org/other. Request free seeds to plant a First Fruits Garden at WisdomForLife.org/sow-a-seed-1.html. Get water-saving tips from the University of California, Davis, at Tinyurl.com/GardenWaterSavers.
an attempt to divert county patterns of waste by creating easy, simple access to sustainable living practices. The Neighborhood Fruit Harvest Program through EAU/PAF is the only organization in Las Vegas history to take on the task of gleaning local neighborhood grown fruit and developing a sustainable practice by which encourages communities, households and individuals to strive to consume 100 percent of the food we grow. Harvests are gleaned, cleaned, distributed and consumed within 12 hours. There is no need for storage and there is no waste. Neighborhood Fruit Harvest Program members connect with homeowners and make them aware that they are growing edible fruit in their landscape. Relations are established between EAU/ PAF and the property owner, which include scheduling a Harvest Party for their fruit trees at their peak of ripeness. EAU/PAF teams of harvest captains and volunteer harvesters arrive as scheduled with the tools to collect and clean the harvest on-site. Teams then separate harvests evenly for distribution to local agencies serving vulnerable elders and youth through partner agencies such as Clark County Parks and Recreation: Whitney Senior Center, Whitney Recreation Center, Cambridge Community Center; Street Teens; Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth; HELP of Southern Nevada Shannon West Homeless Youth Shelter; East Valley Family Services and U.S. Senior Foods Commodities Distribution Center. County residents can increase community sustainability simply by eating what is grown, familiarizing themselves with leaves, bark and fruits of the area’s variety of fruit trees and noticing the presence of these fruit trees within neighborhoods. Volunteer opportunities are available with local agencies that grow or harvest fruit. Prominent local organizations seeking volunteers include Earth Arts Unlimited/Project AngelFaces, The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners Orchard, Great Basin Permaculture Learning Garden. Rhonda Killough is the founder and director of Project AngelFaces. For more information, visit ProjectAngelFaces. org or ProjectAngelFaces on Facebook. natural awakenings July 2015
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