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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.
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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.
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