Hunger and Poverty - Transform the Emergency Food System

We have the most extensive emergency food system in the world, but it can meet only a small fraction of the needs of hungry people. The donated food usually comes from corporations and can often be highly processed and non-nutritious.
~ from Ten Things to Reduce Hunger and Provide Good Food For All in The Nation ~

One program that really impressed me when I lived in Salem, Oregon, had to do with gleaning. Gleaners go into fields to pick up the crops left behind by high-tech agricultural equipment.

I volunteered with the program a few times. It absolutely amazed me the amount of fruits and vegetables left in the fields once the machines and/or farmworkers supposedly had picked them clean. Some of the leftovers had blemishes. Some were adjudged not to have the precise shape or size. For some, the color was a bit off. Whatever the reason, a bunch of us were able to fill two pickup trucks full of usable produce which we donated to a local food bank.

When I think of our "haul" on a portion of one farm, it makes me think we must be leaving tons of edible food to rot in farm fields across the nation. With food banks stretched to the limit, this borders on insanity. If each community had one or more volunteer organizations to glean area farms, we could feed far more hungry people than we do now.

To read the introduction to this mini-series, go here.