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What is gleaning?
Glean (verb): to gather produce or grain left in the field by farmers
It’s no secret that school lunch programs everywhere need support to effectively nourish students with the best possible foods on very limited resources. Community gleaning initiatives across the country have become an integral part of the solution for school lunches, food pantries, and community centers. In Marin County, CA, every Monday afternoon, the Marin Organic Glean Team harvests extra foods from the fields of Marin Organic member farms for the Organic School Lunch and Gleaning Program, enabling kids throughout the county to eat local organic foods at school. By supplementing weekly orders with gleaned products, this program enables 10,000 students to choose nutritious, local food options, every week, while the schools stay within their tight budgets.
If you would like to learn more. Check out our informative videos on the right or scroll through our Gleaners In 2010 page where last year’s National Gleaning Day Partners are profiled!
How can you get involved?
Build a movement to glean in your community
On National Gleaning Day, let’s unite across the nation in this growing movement for food justice and holistic resource management. Consider this simple, empowering and adaptable solution. Mobilize your local community to celebrate gleaning initiatives for school lunches, food pantries, and senior centers everywhere, creating a food system where everyone and everything thrives!
Join gleaners across the nation on Monday, September 12, 2011:
1. Invite your community and local farms to sponsor a gleaning on Monday, September 12th, 2011 (give or take a week, every effort counts).
2. Connect the dots between local school food services and farms.
3. Celebrate your choice to source an ingredient locally for school lunch with a special event.
Click Here to Become a Partner!
We have provided National Gleaning Day Partners with a Gleaner’s Toolkit to help plan a fun and successful event. Materials in the kit include a release form, post-able flyer, checklist, etc. That can be found here Gleaner’s Toolkit
