![]() The food went to her program’s COVID-19 grocery relief program. When the Tulsa farmers market closed, she says she was buying produce directly from the farmers. It isn’t the only strategy she uses to combat food waste while keeping people fed. While gleaning won’t solve food insecurity, Plohocky says it’s one way to help get fresh food to people who need it. “They can’t afford to have someone who is not well trained, come into their field and do something wrong in like, not wash their hands after using the toilet, and then possibly, you know, contaminate an entire field,” Baker says. Greg Baker, a professor at Santa Clara University, says gleaning only helps to an extent since farmers often will only let gleaners into the field after the very last harvest. Research from Santa Clara University estimates that about a third of crops grown on U.S. “You know, you just have to grow things and see and you figure your markets out,” Tierney says. He previously sold to restaurants and hotels, but he is transitioning to sell directly to the public through a retail store. “And so there’s a missing link in between the farm and the pantries or the food banks or the schools or whoever needs that food … So that’s what we were trying to do, is just fill in that gap a little bit.”įor Tierney, he says he’s in the middle of figuring out how much to grow. “The farmers don’t have the manpower or the time to load it up and deliver it somewhere,” Plohocky says. Plohocky says farmers often recognize there’s extra food in the fields, but getting it off the farm can be difficult. “There’s so much more produce, because of disruptions in the systems whether it’s the restaurants that were closed that the small-scale farmer can’t sell to now or schools that were closed, that the large-scale farmer can’t sell to,” Peterson says.Įxcess food on the farm is common, even during normal times. Shawn Peterson, founder of the Association of Gleaning Organizations, says the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t a crisis for them, but there’s a lot more food to pick up. Gleaning isn’t a practice exclusive to disasters. There are gleaning organizations all over the country. Gleaning has been a way to provide food to the needy since biblical times. ![]() The cabbage rescue mission is part of Hands 2 Harvest, a program that aims to reduce food waste by getting volunteers to pick the excess food of the field. The team ended up bringing back four truckloads of cabbage and lettuce to the group’s mobile grocery store. Time was of the essence, so she says she rented a U-Haul truck to get all the produce. She assembled a small group of volunteers through Facebook with one mission in mind: rescue as many cabbages as possible and bring them to those in need before all the leafy goods were underwater. Plohocky helped salvage leftover crops on the farm last year when the nearby creek flooded. Katie Plohocky, executive director of the Healthy Community Store Initiative, stands in front of fields on Joe’s Farm in Bixby, Oklahoma on July 30. ![]() “Just romaine lettuce the size of my torso that was growing and just all of these rows and to know that it was going to be underwater in two days all of that it was going to be ruined, for me was just … wow,” Plohocky says. Plohocky says she remembers going to Tierney’s farm and seeing the vegetables in jeopardy. That’s when he called Katie Plohocky, the executive director of the Health Community Store Initiative, which aims to bring fresh produce to food deserts in Tulsa. All Tierney could do was watch the water get closer and closer, he says. He had to evacuate, leaving behind fields full of vegetables. Before Joe Tierney knew it, water from the nearby creek was creeping forward onto his farm in Bixby, Oklahoma. Heavy rain was causing flooding all along the Arkansas River. A practice called “gleaning” helps save crops from going to waste while feeding those in need. While COVID-19 has hampered farmers this year by forcing many farmers markets and restaurants to close, usually it’s the weather that threatens crops. With Manpower of Central Illinois, you get the best of both worlds: locally owned and globally connected.BIXBY, Okla. In addition to our local expertise, we also have access to the resources and support of a parent corporation that spans over more than 80 countries. Manpower of Central Illinois has helped both companies and individuals navigate the ever-changing world of work. As a locally owned and operated company, we’re delighted to support our communities with employment opportunities providing individuals not only jobs, but also opportunities for skills training and assessment, and offering companies innovative workforce solutions in staffing, including temporary, temporary-to-permanent, permanent placement, payroll and HR consulting services. We’re proud to celebrate over 50 years of putting people to work in Central Illinois.
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