Gleaning Log January 31, 2014 (Stats from 2013)

Now that the gleaning season is officially over (we think…), I can finally report on the 2013 gleaning season’s stats! Below are a few numbers and averages that we have come up with.  If you are interested in more, please email Matt at [email protected] - there are a lot of numbers and only so little time to manipulate them, so any new ideas are welcome!

We will be presenting these numbers plus more along with pictures from this past season at our Winter Volunteer Party/Annual Meeting, February 9 in Arlington. Hope to see you there!

As you read, consider listening to the below song by Darkside, an electronic duo from Brooklyn. I find the song’s title, “Paper Trails” to be fitting for this type of work that we accomplish here at BAG in the winter!

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Numbers:

• 95,832 pounds (2,781 bushels) of produce
• 46 different types of fruits and vegetables
• 106 gleaning trips
• 59 field gleans and 47 post-harvest gleans
• 27 donating farms
• 242 deliveries to recipient agencies
• 20 recipient hunger relief agencies (plus an additional 500+ agencies served by our partners Food for Free, the Greater Boston Food Bank, and the Merrimack Valley Food Bank)
• 1,732 pounds from the Arlington Farmers’ Market
• 390,256 4-ounce servings
  
• 157 different volunteers, 84,545 total volunteer hours
• 4,098.60 miles driven in our GMC Safari Cargo Van (the Glean Machine)

Averages:

• 34.5 pounds per bushel
• 904 pounds (47 bushels) per gleaning trip
• 403 pounds (11.5 bushels) per delivery to recipient agencies
• 6.3 volunteers per trip

Top 5 Donating Farms, by weight:
1.     Kimball Fruit Farm, Pepperell (24,060 lbs.)
2.     The Food Project, Lincoln (11,353 lbs.)
3.     Verrill Farm, Concord (9,250 lbs.)
4.     Dick’s Market Garden, Lunenburg (8,765 lbs.)
5.     Gore Place, Waltham (6,325 lbs.)
When ranked by volume, this list is the same except that Verrill Farm and Dick’s Market Garden are swapped, Gore Place is no longer on the list, and an Anonymous Farm is 3rd (260 bushels, 3,408 lbs. of mostly greens).

Top 5 Recipient Agencies, by weight:
1.     Food for Free*, Cambridge (35,029 lbs.)
2.     Greater Boston Food Bank*, Boston (16,796 lbs.)
3.     Medford Community Cupboard (7,335 lbs.)
4.     Jewish Family and Children’s Service, Waltham (6,542 lbs.)
5.     Helping Hand Food Pantry, Cambridge (5,857 lbs.)
*Indicates agencies which distribute to additional agencies

Top 5 Crops Gleaned, by weight:
1.     Apples (39,820 lbs.)
2.     Winter Squash (17,175 lbs.)
3.     Corn (4,960 lbs.)
4.     Cabbage (3,920 lbs.)
5.     Kale (2,724 lbs.)

Top 5 Crops Gleaned, by volume:
1.     Apples (995.5 bushels)
2.     Winter Squash (352 bushels)
3.     Kale (227 bushels)
4.     Chard (214 bushels)
5.     Corn (124 bushels)

To an equally strong Harvest in 2014!
Matt Crawford, Gleaning Coordinator