Gleaning in Chatham-Kent

 

Simply, Gleaning is the process of taking "left over" produce and food products that would otherwise rot in the field, or be thrown into the landfill and "rescue" they items while fresh and take the products to local food banks for distribution or to a facility that dries and packages the items for future use.  

 

Where does Rotary fit in?  We have members who actively participate in gleaning in the fields as well as at the processing process.  We also transport goods from farmers to facilities to assist in getting fresh produce where it is needed!

 

The Chatham Kent Public Health unit  ( website: https://ckphu.com/)   has a program of gleaning produce from farmers fields after the farmer has harvested his crop.  In partnership with the health unit, farmers call their contact and an email goes out to all individuals who are on the Health Dept list to attend a field within Chatham Kent and pick food.  The food is immediately taken to not only local food banks, soup kitchens, hostels and youth centers within CK but is also given to large urban centres such as London and Toronto.  For liability reasons, the Health dept requires volunteers to attend a short training session.

 

Items gleaned include corn, beans, peppers, tomatos, cucumbers, lettuce, potatoes, squash, apples and more.

 

The Southwestern Gleaners in Leamington  (website:  https://swogleaners.ca/ ) also takes in this produce and after volunteers process the food it is put into a dehydrator and packaged and given to local food banks, as well as transferred to remote areas within Ontario that have short growing seasons.

 

So how can you help?  Well, get in touch with Lyndsay Davidson at lyndsayd@chatham-kent.ca and get onto the list of gleaners!

 

You can also contact the Southwestern Gleaners in Leamington, download their application and come and help clean, and process food for the dehydrator.  According to their Website, they need 150 volunteers per week.