Posted July 20, 2017 at 08:41am by Marcella Houghton

Vermont Gleaning Collective Seeks Volunteers

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Despite clouds and rain this spring, crops across Vermont are growing and farmers are seeking gleaners! Gleaning is the act of collecting crops that farmers do not pick or that remain unsold after harvest.

You are invited to join in the harvest. Register with the Vermont Gleaning Collective and become involved in your community’s farms, volunteering with the organizations that help farmers feed more of their neighbors. Crops collected through gleaning are distributed to charitable food sites either in the communities where they are collected or statewide through partnerships.

This is a great activity for folks of any age. Families and groups are encouraged to participate. Learn about your neighborhood farms through hands-on volunteer work that makes a difference in your backyard.

Member organizations of the Vermont Gleaning Collective serve farms, engage volunteers, and provide locally produced, nutritious foods in Addison, Franklin, Grand Isle, Chittenden, Rutland, Orange, and Washington Counties as well as the Lamoille Valley including Lamoille, Caledonia, and Orleans Counties.

Help this season be as successful as last year, when more than 400 Vermont Gleaning Collective volunteers gleaned just shy of 200,000 pounds of 50 different fruits and vegetables grown on more than 100 Vermont farms. More than 110 sites statewide received produce – including the 220 agencies served by the Vermont Foodbank.

 

Become a gleaner today: register at www.VermontGleaningCollective.org

Photo Caption: HOPE in Addison County leads volunteers and partners from the Rutland Area Farm & Food Link and Salvation Farms to glean more than 9,000 pounds of carrots on a fall morning in 2016.