What Is Gleaning?
Learn More About Gleaning And The Knox County Gleaners
The History Of Gleaning
Gleaning is the practice of collecting surplus food from farms, gardens, and other sources to help those in need. The guiding principles of gleaning are:
- Redirecting food,
- Connecting with nature,
- Highlighting food waste,
- Building community
- And treating growers with respect.
Long ago gleaning was even required by law—landowners had to leave part of their fields for the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers.
As time went on gleaning became a crucial part of the agricultural calendar, helping rural families support themselves. However, with the rise of new farming technologies and changes in private property laws, gleaning started to decline in the mid 19th century.
Today, the concept of gleaning has seen a resurgence in many communities, including ours. The Knox County Gleaners have been hard at work getting all this food that would have been otherwise left behind in the fields, onto the plates of our neighbors since 2019!
We’ve also been able to apply this concept to assisting restaurants, camps, and other organizations with their excess food as well. Some call this “urban gleaning”, but the idea is the same. If you have extra items you can’t use, give us a call and we’ll pick them up and distribute them to area non-profits that will get them to those they work with.
If you’d like to partner with The Knox County Gleaners to reduce food waste and help ensure your community has access to nutritious food, please get in touch.
Knox County Gleaners
Nancy Wood and Lorain Francis founded the KCG in 2019 to help connect local farmers with our food insecure neighbors in Knox County. Nancy is the SNAP Ed Nutrition Educator for Knox County. She teaches cooking and nutrition classes in schools, food pantries, soup kitchens, and senior residences with an emphasis on creating healthy meals on a budget. Lorain Francis is the former Program Director of AmeriCorps Seniors, a community service program for senior volunteers, administered by Penquis Community Action Agency in Knox County.
A generous grant from the The Harvard Pilgrim Foundation and Penquis allowed Nancy and Lorain to develop the infrastructure necessary for the KCG to begin its gleaning program. The KCG work with farmers, gardeners, and orchard owners who want to share their surplus bounty with their food insecure neighbors in Knox County. Our volunteers collect and clean, and then distribute surplus food to a variety of sites including food pantries, soup kitchens, libraries, senior homes, and other community hubs. Our gleaning efforts reduce food waste in farms, gardens, and orchards, and increase food security by distributing healthy, locally grown food throughout Knox County.
