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Surplus harvest aids food bank

Farming: Gleaning avoids waste, feeds the hungry

JOHN DODGE; The Olympian | • Published October 05, 2009

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The time-honored tradition of returning to the fields and orchards to harvest surplus crops is alive and well in South Sound.

Photo Gallery:

Volunteer gleaners give their time to South Sound Charities

MORE INFORMATION

To learn more about the Thurston County Food Bank gleaning program, call 360-352-8597, ext. 108, or send an e-mail to gleaning@thurstonfoodbank.org.

Called gleaning, this final harvest of what’s left behind after commercial harvest is helping to feed the ever-growing number of hungry people served by food banks in the region.

The Thurston County Food Bank hired its first gleaning coordinator in May, the result of a Harvest Against Hunger federal project supported by AmeriCorps VISTA and funded by federal stimulus dollars.

Food Bank gleaning coordinator Heather Davis has teamed up with several South Sound organic farms and homeowners to make sure a wide range of food, including green beans, corn, Asian pears, and apples, doesn’t go to waste.

Since July, Davis has rounded up volunteers to glean at participating farms, typically after the commercial growers have completed their harvest.

Davis estimated that 10 percent to 15 percent of the fresh produce available through the food bank is gleaned.

It’s a welcome addition, coming at a time when the demand for food bank services is on the rise. For instance, the Thurston County Food Bank saw a 39 percent increase in clients in 2008 compared with 2007, a growth trend that’s continuing this year.

The Rochester Organization of Families had more than 1,500 clients in September, compared with 900 about the same time two years ago, ROOF food bank coordinator Cindy Caturia said.

Last week at Helsing Junction Farm near Rochester, gleaning operations were in full swing to help both the Thurston County and Rochester food banks.

Farm owners Anna Salafsky and Susan Ujcic opened their rows of green beans and carrots to Marshall Udo, a Thurston County Food Bank volunteer.

“I thought it would be a great idea to come out and harvest some of the vegetables that I’ve come to enjoy in my own garden,” Udo said.

He worked alongside Narcizo, Rosalio and Victor Apantipan, farm employees who were picking vegetables for the ROOF food bank.

The farm, in the fertile Independence Valley next to the Chehalis River, has a long history of food bank donations. That history includes a voluntary program in which farm customers can donate money, matched by the farm owners, to deliver boxes of fresh vegetables to the food banks all summer.

“We feel it’s important to support the food banks,” Ujcic said. “There’s a lot of need out there.”

The gleaning program also helps Helsing Junction Farm realize its goal to be a waste-free farm, Salafsky said.

“Every scrap of food on the farm is being used,” she said.

Davis said other commercial farms participating in the Thurston County Food Bank gleaning program include Kirsop Farms, Circle Hawk Farm, Lattin’s Country Cider Mill Farm and the Wobbly Cart Farm and Cooperative.

John Dodge: 360-754-5444

jdodge@theolympian.com