— from Pegi Groundwater —
Is your orchard or garden more productive than you can handle? Are you going to be off island at peak harvest time? It is a shame to let all of that lovely food go to waste when there are hungry people on the island who do not have gardens and cannot afford to buy much fresh fruit and vegetables.
The Orcas Gleaners group has been formed to fill the gap between people with surplus and the hungry. We will collect your bounty and share it with deserving organizations on the island like the Food Bank, Kaleidoscope, the Senior Center and our schools. All you need to do is give us a call and we will supply the willing labor and the tools for harvesting.
We are also looking for more volunteers to help us with the harvest. If you have food to be harvested or want to volunteer to help, call Pegi Groundwater at 376-3957.
Thank you! I have been wanting to organize this myself since moving to Orcas. We really can feed the hungry with the surplus that is allowed to rot in our fields. Someday, perhaps we’ll have volunteer gardens that will give the hungry good food year round.
Wonderful, Pegi! One summer we had a weekly “exchange” down here at the West Sound Community Hall, dropping veggies into coolers, and people picking what they wanted during the day. The remaining produce went to the Food Bank the next day. (we did the exchange on Mondays).
Another idea to explore: Have “drop off” bins for fruit during the season…bring any time…take any time. The bins could possibly be on the contested County
A St. extension, at the side of the Senior Center, or even in the food bank area.
Great ideas Pegi and Margot! I will make sure to contact you when my butternut squash come in.
GREAT IDEA! Hope the word can get around! I belonged to the Skagit Gleaners for years and it was a major source of food for me and many others. Of course we had fields of food to glean from. This will hopefully provide islanders that can not afford fresh produce with access to it. This is something that has always bothered me as it is such an important ingredient to the food diet for good health.