If you are registered as a volunteer to glean with us and you receive the Gleaning Trip Alert emails, you may have some idea of how busy we've been lately! It's only the beginning of the apple season, but we've already gleaned 10,000 pounds of them so far (most from Connemara House Farm), plus more than 8,000 pounds of peaches from Dick's Market Garden, Brooksby Farm, Kimball Fruit Farm, and Clearview Farm. We have also been gleaning typical summer crops like zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, eggplants, and cucumbers. Corn has been coming in slowly so far because it's been a hot and dry summer. We are hoping for more rain for this crop, but in the meantime, peaches are still coming in strong. With our new, larger capacity box truck, we hope to increase efficiency and organize larger gleaning trips, both in length and number of volunteers. We hope you can continue to help out as we strive to "Leave No Crop Behind"! Written by Matt Crawford, Lead Gleaning Coordinator
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Ben Jankowski is a superstar gleaner. We’ve been graced with his presence during his final month before heading off to college at UMass Amherst, where he will be double majoring in resource economics and sustainable food & farming. How’s that for an 18-year-old!? During the month of August, Ben is working as an intern gleaning coordinator at BAG. He assists Matt and Dylan out in the fields by helping to lead volunteers, lifting heavy boxes, and doing produce deliveries. Ben has been an avid gardener since he was young. He takes inspiration from his father who, at age seven, planted vegetables outside of his trailer home to feed to his family and to sell. Ben says, “I believe that that is where agriculture became part of my blood.”
Ben was introduced to the concept of gleaning a few years ago when he viewed the film The Gleaners & I (Les glaneurs et la glaneuse) in French class. He was intrigued by the idea, so he searched for gleaning organizations in Massachusetts and came across BAG. With the help of Duck, Matt, Dylan, and Oakes, Ben formed a gleaning group at his high school. Although Ben thinks that the gleaning program won’t take off at his school, Ben learned a lot from developing the program. He went on several gleaning trips, interacted with farmers, and worked closely with the Mansfield Food Pantry in his hometown. Ben plans to continue gleaning, and he hopes to build on his experience in farming and community service when he heads off to school. We are confident that Ben will move on to do great, great things throughout his years at college and beyond. Thank you, Ben, and good luck! We had a tremendously successful July this year, which can largely be attributed to our increased capacity from 2014 to 2015. Compared with last year, we gleaned nearly 9,000 more pounds in over double the amount of bushels. In July of 2015, we gleaned 20,588 pounds in 778 bushels; in July of 2014, we gleaned 11,645 pounds of produce in 366 bushels. And, we accomplished this in only 36 gleaning trips in July of 2015, compared to 30 gleaning trips during July of 2014, which points to our increased efficiencies as a gleaning organization (larger vehicles, better volunteer training, etc.). With gleaning coordinator staff hours in July increased from just 32 hours a week last year to 72 hours a week this year, plus a larger van and stronger relationships with more farms, it is no surprise that we were able to accomplish this increase. July is a notoriously slow month for gleaning, mainly because farmers have more things on their minds than possibly at any other point during the season. They are harvesting what they can from their early-season plantings, and planning for and planting fall crops. Of course, the intense summer heat does not make things easier, as most crops grow a lot faster (and, in turn, rot faster) when it is hot out. However, with more staff hours this year, we are now able to carve out more time to reach out to farmers, rather than remaining passive and relying on them to reach out to us. This constant communication between farmers and gleaning coordinators creates a constant stream of donated produce for us to glean. Of course, without the hard work and dedication of our volunteers, we wouldn't be able to glean anything. And, with our new relationship with the Greater Boston Good Bank, there is practically no limit to how much we can harvest and donate to the hunger relief fresh food network of eastern Massachusetts. Written by Matt Crawford, Lead Gleaning Coordinator |
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