Printed Press Read about the work of Boston Area Gleaners in the many articles listed below!
February, 2017 Boston Area Gleaners' work was featured in a special "Optimism" issue of John Deere's magazine, The Furrow. The article highlights BAG's relationships with farms, and how gleaning is beneficial to all parties involved in the process.
November, 2016 A trip to Barrett's Mill Farm in Concord, MA was one of the gleans that contributed pounds of food to our "10 Tons in 10 Days" rally in November 2016. This article highlights some of our volunteer gleaners, explaining why they have gotten involved with BAG. One volunteers says, "So much food goes to waste, and I’m happy to know that it goes to people who need it, especially on Thanksgiving."
November, 2016 The week before Thanksgiving, Boston Area Gleaners partners with Food For Free to distribute more than 10 tons of freshly gleaned produce to the holiday dinner tables of people in need. Metro Boston visited our field station on Day 7 of this "10 Tons in 10 Days" initiative, observing one of Food For Free's produce pick-ups.
October, 2016 Marianne Delorey, Executive Director of Colony Retirement Homes in Worcester, wrote a spotlight piece on Boston Area Gleaners on FiftyPlusAdvocate.com. She writes, "Since they have been receiving produce from BAG, however, the cooks have become more creative and more excited about cooking... These low-income elders rely on Colony’s meals program to stay healthy and independent in the community and they love the fresh veggies. They report that the flavors are fuller, the colors are more vibrant, and perhaps, it reminds them of their childhood to receive the bounty of the harvest."
August, 2016 This article in Industrial Systems and Engineering Magazine shows that strong supply chain management is key to getting high quality food to people in need. Boston Area Gleaners is one main food recovery organization that the paper analyzes; the authors note that BAG's volunteer-driven gleaning program is a prime method of moving surplus food along the supply chain.
August, 2016 This entry in The Huffington Post summarizes gleaning as a way to simultaneously mitigate food waste and food insecurity. The authors mention their research about gleaning efforts across the nation, such as Boston Area Gleaners (see article below).
March, 2016 In this academic article in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Erkut Sonmez, Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston University, and Deishin Lee, Assistant Professor of Operations Management at Boston College and former BAG board member analyze gleaning as a tool to reduce hunger and food waste. They propose a model for optimizing gleaning operations. Boston Area Gleaners staff Duck Caldwell and Matt Crawford provided the authors key insight on gleaning operations--information that significantly informed their research.
June, 2016 Writer John Muldoon experienced gleaning first-hand at Essex's Alprilla Farm, and wrote about his time in a piece in North Shore Local News.
June, 2016 This Christian Science Monitor article highlights BAG Executive Director Laurie "Duck" Caldwell's path to her current position. Duck was first a volunteer, then a short-term part-time employee, and finally the director of Boston Area Gleaners. The organization's volume intake, volunteer base, and budget have grown exponentially under Duck's leadership since 2010. According to partner farmer Carl Hills of Kimball Fruit Farm, “BAG is the Cadillac of food distribution to food pantries," thanks to Duck's ability to build the systems that enable gleaning on a large scale.
November, 2015 The Boston Globe highlights BAG's work during the busy weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. Duck is quoted: “The spirit of the holiday is supposed to be about gratitude and giving thanks, so I think that there’s a heightened awareness during this holiday in particular that is ‘if I have some food I should make sure that other people in my community have food too.’” This article also features Waltham Fields Community Farm--the site of our field station and one of our partner farms!
November, 2015 In 2015, BAG began a pilot program to deliver more produce to the Greater Boston Food Bank's Value Added Produce program. The Food Bank picks up many tons of gleaned fruits and vegetables from BAG every week, and delivers the fresh food to hundreds of recipient agencies. We are so grateful be partnered with such a successful hunger relief organization with a widespread impact.
July, 2015 Natural Awakenings (Boston Edition) published two articles featuring Boston Area Gleaners. The first, titled "Food Gleaning," highlight's Duck's expertise on the need for gleaning on the production and consumption end of the food chain. The second, "Boston Area Gleaners Leave No Crop Behind," sums up our gleaning program, and describes our hopes for growth.
April 17, 2015 The Beginning Farmer Network (BFN) of Massachusetts profiled BAG Lead Gleaning Coordinator, Matt Crawford, in a piece about the gleaning services offered to farmers by BAG. The short piece details how working with BAG can be beneficial for their many partner farmers, and it includes an anecdote about why a farmer chose to donate over 4000 pounds of surplus tomatoes to BAG during the 2014 gleaning season.
March 30, 2015 The Arlington Advocate featured a story about how Boston Area Gleaners donated their cargo van (the Glean Machine I) to a non-profit food rescue group in Arlington called Food Link. The van was originally donated to BAG in 2010, and with this donation it continues to deliver food to those in our community who need it most!
January 4, 2015 Yet again, the Boston Globe featured Boston Area Gleaners, this time in its Viewfinder section. This segment features pictures of our dedicated volunteers gleaning kale at Weir River Farm in Hingham, as well as short narratives about some volunteers.
July 10, 2014 Boston Area Gleaners was featured in an article in the regional sections of the Boston Globe (North, South, and West). Click below to read the stories of why farmers and volunteers enjoy their relationship with the Gleaners, and to see some great pictures of us at work in the fields!
March 28, 2014 Boston Area Gleaners get a worthy mention in this article about the general state of agriculture in Massachusetts, following our participation at Ag Day 2014 at the State House.
November 26, 2013 Our Executive Director, Duck Caldwell, was named a "Hunger Hero" by the City of Boston's Office of Food Initiatives in 2013. We are so proud and motivated by the good work that Duck does in leading BAG and working hard to make sure that hungry people get the fresh food they need. Thank you, Duck, for all that you do!
The article webpage is no longer available; if we find it, we will post it here!
July 15, 2013 Our current Gleaning Coordinator, Matt Crawford, was featured in the First Person section of the July 15, 2013 Boston Globe Magazine. In the short article, enitled "Prized leftovers: Believing no fresh food should go to waste, Matt Crawford is the new guy to round up volunteers for Boston Area Gleaners", Matt details his journey to his current job at Boston Area Gleaners and explains why gleaning plays such an important role in increasing access to healthy, local food.
July 8, 2013 An article published on the websiteecoMass News entitled "Mass. Movements to Keep Food From Being Wasted" describes the efforts of different Boston area individuals and organizations that are dedicated to recovering food before it is wasted. The article details a bit of the history of our organization and a few key relationships between Boston Area Gleaners and farmers. Great reading for anyone who is interested in learning more about food recovery and the connection between our work and others' work in the anti-waste and anti-hunger movements!
The article webpage is no longer available; if we find it, we will post it here!
October 23, 2012 Great feature on Boston's Metro News on Food Day 2012 at Mattapan, MA. The article titled "Boston: Take a break from beans, it's time to eat your Greens." was published on Oct. 23rd, 2012 by Morgan Rousseau. Boston Area Gleaners is very proud being able to join ABCD Head Start on the event. Let's encourage Boston to Eat Our Greens!
October 19, 2012 Boston Area Gleaners featured in Spare Change News on Oct. 19th, 2012. The title "Where Waste Meets Want" by Noelle Swan accurately states what we do as gleaners! It also contains nice overview of our history and works!
September 26, 2012 Boston Area Gleaners featured in Food & Dining section of The Boston Globe on Sept. 26th, 2012 with title "Gleaners Reap Food for the Needy, Spirit for Themselves". This great feature is written by Sarah Shemkus, Globe correspondent.
Click here to see the online version of the feature!
October 24, 2011 Boston Area Gleaners joined Governor Deval Patrick at The Food Project farm in Lincoln, MA on Oct. 24th, 2011, which is then proclaimed as Massachusetts Food Day!