Welcome to Bostonareagleaners.org

Gleaning is a Biblical term referring to the law of those times that required farmers to let peasants onto their farms after harvest to “glean” whatever produce was left in the fields.

Today farmers plow it under. Produce is left out there for various reasons—the imperfection of harvest machinery (ie potatoes), or because the produce became overripe, slightly damaged by frost, or otherwise imperfect and hard to market, but still edible and nutritious.

Boston Area Gleaners’ mission is to remedy this waste of food, and thus to supplement low income people’s food budgets!

Our core activities include:
* Contacting Boston area farmers to ask if they have any gleaning opportunities.
• Harvesting left over produce from said farms and donating it to food pantries, meal programs, and homeless shelters.
• Working with farmers to donate produce seconds after farmers’ markets for the same purposes.
* Coordinating Produce Seconds Market at Arlington’s public housing (also as a model for other Markets) where donated and gleaned produce is sold at $2 a large grocery bag (well below wholesale prices).
• Educating people about the nutritional benefits of local and organic produce and how to prepare and cook greens and root vegetables in healthy and simple ways.

Boston Area Gleaners was started in 2004 and since then has gleaned and donated 664 boxes of produce (over 13,000 pounds) to charity. To learn more about our project and mission, contact us.