Abstract
At the end of the 2008 growing season, a farming couple outside of Denver opened their fields to anyone who wanted to gather potatoes, beets, carrots, and onions left over from the harvest. The Millers, owners of the farm, had never made such an offer before, but thought it could be a way to thank their customers while ensuring that perfectly good food did not go to waste. They arranged for the public giveaway to begin at 9:00 a.m. on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and put the word out to the local media, thinking that over the course of the weekend, five thousand people might take them up on their offer.
When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger. Leviticus 19:9–10
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Notes
- 1.
Associated Press, “Farm’s Open Harvest Draws 40,000 in Colorado,” New York Times, November 24, 2008, A14. Also from a broadcast interview of Joe Miller, “In Colorado, Veggie Giveaway Spurs Massive Response,” All Things Considered, NPR, November 24, 2008, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97418921 (last accessed December 5, 2013).
- 2.
Ibid., Associated Press.
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Agnès Varda, The Gleaners and I (France: Cinè-Tamaris, 2000), DVD.
- 5.
Gail Savina, Executive Director of City Fruit, in a telephone conversation with the author, January 14, 2014.
- 6.
Savina bristles at the term “gleaning,” precisely because it connotes the gathering of scraps, leftovers, food that is unfit for one reason or another. She prefers the more general term “harvesting.” But she and her organization really are gleaning. The family—like the farmer—takes what they need from their harvest, and the rest will just go to waste. City Fruit takes the food the family doesn’t want; not because it is unfit, but because it is too much. There is no shame in the endeavor. But Savina’s sentiment is valid. After all, Millet and Varda worked for the same cause to erase the pervasive stigma associated with gleaning.
- 7.
City Fruit, “Urban Orchard Stewards,” http://cityfruit.org/programs/orchard-stewards/ (last accessed January 19, 2014).
- 8.
http://foodforward.org/ (last accessed January 20, 2014).
- 9.
http://gleaninghawaii.wordpress.com/about/ (last accessed January 20, 2014).
- 10.
http://foodforward.org/get-involved/volunteers/ (last accessed January 20, 2014).
- 11.
Pollan, The Omnivores Dilemma, 397.
- 12.
Quotes and statistics gleaned from various pages on the SF-Marin Food Bank website: http://www.sfmfoodbank.org/. In particular, see “Food Bank Fast Facts,” http://www.sfmfoodbank.org/sites/default/files/documents/NewsCenter/fastfactsupdate10_10_13.pdf (last accessed January 21, 2014). Also, Blain Johnson, Media Contact for the SF-Marin Food Bank, in a telephone conversation with the author, January 17, 2014.
- 13.
Gleaners, “Hunger in Indiana,” http://www.gleaners.org/stay-in formed/hunger-in-indiana (last accessed January 21, 2014).
- 14.
Stacie Pierce, in a telephone conversation with the author, January 28, 2009.
- 15.
Winne, 55.
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© 2014 Darrin Nordahl
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Nordahl, D. (2014). To Glean and Forage in the City. In: Public Produce. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-550-2_5
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