The Healthy Roots Gleaning Program has been working year-round since spring 2020. This winter and spring we continued to expand our off-season produce deliveries thanks to our generous farm partners and incredible volunteers. Through the winter River Berry Farm kept us flush with carrots and other storage roots, and Tuberville and Jim Markle supplied us with loads of potatoes. In late April this year we were already gleaning spinach at Sandy Bottom Fa
rm. In previous years, we often did not have any gleaned produce available for recipient sites from later winter until June or July – the time of year that old-timers would have called the “hunger gap.” In the future, Healthy Roots hopes to have even more year-round gleaning capacity. We welcome more local farms to join the gleaning program. In addition to the bounty of summer and fall produce, we accept storage crops, spring greens, meat, dairy, bread, and more.
If you are a home gardener there are also ways to get involved. For example, consider planting a row for donation this year! We encourage you to donate directly to your local food shelf if you are a home gardener. You could reach out to your food shelf now as you plan your garden to find out what types of produce would be most desired. The VT Foodbank has this nice agency locator for finding local food shelves. If you have a large amount of something such as a bumper crop of apples from a home orchard, our gleaning program is happy to come pick them for people in need.
For more information on how to get involved as a grower or a volunteer please contact healthyrootsgleans@gmail.com.