Fruit & vegetable gleaning initiatives
Fruit and vegetable gleaning or field gleaning initiatives gather food left in fields after the primary harvest or food in fields where harvesting is not profitable. These initiatives can also collect food after farmers’ markets or farm stands close, or excess produce from farms, orchards, or packing houses. Urban gleaning or urban harvesting initiatives gather excess produce from registered fruit trees, community, school, and backyard gardens, or other urban agriculture sites. Most gleaning initiatives rely on volunteers to harvest, pick up, sort, and deliver fresh fruits and vegetables to food banks, food pantries, churches, mobile food pantries, and other community organizations that help distribute the produce to families with low incomes. Some participating farms use cull bins while harvesting to set aside non-marketable produce for donation (Beyranevand 2017, CCFP-Owen 2011).
What could this strategy improve?
Expected Benefits
Our evidence rating is based on the likelihood of achieving these outcomes:
- Increased consumption of healthy foods
- Improved dietary habits
Potential Benefits
Our evidence rating is not based on these outcomes, but these benefits may also be possible:
- Reduced obesity rates
- Improved nutrition
- Increased food security
- Reduced emissions
What does the research say about effectiveness? -+
Fruit and vegetable gleaning initiatives are a suggested strategy to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables and improve eating habits, especially for families with low incomes (Beyranevand 2017, Hampl 2005, Hoisington 2001). Such initiatives are also a suggested strategy to prevent childhood obesity by increasing children’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables (CCFP-Owen 2011). Gleaning initiatives may improve nutrition (Hampl 2005) and support community food security (Marshman 2019), although effects may be greater among larger scale or more intensive operations (Vitiello 2014). Food banks, food pantries, and meal programs can use fruit and vegetable gleaning initiatives to source and distribute fresh produce, which is a suggested strategy to reduce food insecurity and malnutrition among individuals and families receiving food assistance from food pantries and meal programs (Sonmez 2016, Sisson 2016). Additional evidence is needed to confirm effects.
Every year, approximately 7% of planted fields in the U.S. are not harvested, although this number varies widely, occasionally reaching as much as 50% for a particular crop (NRDC-Gunders 2012).
Gleaning initiatives reduce food waste, which contributes to reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from the production, processing, transportation, and disposal of food (FAO-Food waste, Hic 2016, CCAFS-Campbell 2012).
Successful gleaning programs face several operational challenges, especially volunteer coordination and donated produce procurement and distribution. Several studies suggest methods to optimize gleaning schedules and maximize the volume of produce gathered (Ata 2019, Lee 2017d, Sonmez 2016).
Implementation Examples -+
The National Gleaning Project provides information on national and state laws and regulations pertaining to gleaning and food donation, an interactive map of gleaning and fresh food recovery organizations, and gleaning and food recovery reports and materials to support organizing and implementing gleaning programs across the country (CAFS-NGP).
A 2011 national survey of food banks reports 115 organizations with local agriculture programs, including 73 gleaning programs (Vitiello 2014). The Society of St. Andrew Gleaning Network, for example, gleans 15 to 20 million pounds of food annually and distributes gleaned produce in the contiguous 48 states and Washington, D.C. (SOSA-Gleaning). The California Association of Food Banks' Farm to Family program is the largest gleaning program in the nation; it distributes over 160 million pounds of produce annually to over 40 food banks (CA AFB-Farm to family).
Statewide gleaning projects also glean millions of pounds of produce each year, for example, the Arkansas Gleaning Project (AHRA-AGP). Some states offer growers a tax credit for donations of excess produce to state-sponsored food banks, as in Arizona, California, Colorado, and Oregon (NRDC-Gunders 2012).
Regional non-profit organizations can run gleaning programs with food banks, churches, and other community partners. One example of such a partnership is FRESHFARM Markets which gleans throughout the Chesapeake Bay region (FRESHFARM-Gleaning). Many local gleaning initiatives glean thousands of pounds of produce, as in Humboldt County, CA (FFP-Gleaning). Gleaning initiatives can also supply fresh produce to schools in low income areas; for example, Ag Against Hunger supplies leafy greens and fresh fruit for school salad bars via the More Produce in Schools Program (AAH-Gleaning).
Urban gleaning initiatives are underway in many cities, for example, San Francisco, CA (SF DPW-Urban harvesting); San Jose, CA (VH-Gleaning); Washington, D.C. (DC Food-Glean); Springfield, MO (OFH-Glean team); Grand Rapids, MI (HGI-Gleaning); Salt Lake City, UT (SLC-FruitShare); and Portland, OR (PFTP-Harvest).
Implementation Resources -+
CAFS-NGP - Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS). National Gleaning Project (NGP): Legal & policy resources, gleaning map, NGP reports & research. Vermont Law School, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Agricultural Library.
Garden Gleaning-Toolkit - The Garden Gleaning Project. Garden gleaning: A toolkit for growers and food shelves.
UFF-Urban gleaning - Urban Food Forestry (UFF). Urban food forestry initiatives: Archive for urban gleaning and free resources.
USDA-Gleaning toolkit - U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Let's glean! United we serve toolkit.
Citations -+
* Journal subscription may be required for access.
AAH-Gleaning - Ag Against Hunger (AAH). Agricultural community feeds the hungry through gleaning and harvesting.
AHRA-AGP - Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance (AHRA). Arkansas gleaning project (AGP).
Ata 2019* - Ata B, Lee D, Sonmez E. Dynamic volunteer staffing in multicrop gleaning operations. Operations Research. 2019;67(2):295-597.
Beyranevand 2017 - Beyranevand L, Leasure-Earnhardt A, Scrufari C. Models for success: A set of case studies examining gleaning efforts across the United States. Center for Agriculture and Food Systems, Vermont Law School. 2017.
CA AFB-Farm to family - California Association of Food Banks (CA AFB). Farm to family: Alleviating hunger and improving nutrition.
CACSCW-Gleaners - Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin (CACSCW). CAC Gleaners perishable food recovery program.
CAFS-NGP - Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS). National Gleaning Project (NGP): Legal & policy resources, gleaning map, NGP reports & research. Vermont Law School, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Agricultural Library.
CCAFS-Campbell 2012 - Campbell B. Is eating local good for the climate? Thinking beyond food miles. Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), CGIAR Research Programs. 2012.
CCFP-Owen 2011 - Owen J, Rosch J, Smith S. Preventing childhood obesity: Policy and practice strategies for North Carolina. Durham, NC: Center for Child & Family Policy (CCFP), Duke University; 2011.
DC Food-Glean - DC Food Recovery Working Group. Glean: Organizations to glean with & where to buy gleaned food.
FAO-Food waste - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Food wastage footprint & climate change.
FFP-Gleaning - Food for People (FFP). The food bank for Humboldt County: Gleaning program.
FRESHFARM-Gleaning - FRESHFARM Markets. Our gleaning partners.
GCW-Second harvest - Glean Central Wisconsin (GCW). Gleaning resources: Exploring the power of second harvest to fight hunger and waste.
Glean Milwaukee-Fruit trees - Glean Milwaukee. City-Community harvesting & sharing fruit: Register a tree, scout trees, pick fruit.
Hampl 2005* - Hampl JS, Levinson SL, Garcia LW, Johnston CS. Project GLEAN: Evaluation of a school-based, gleaned-food distribution project. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture. 2005;25(2):5-15.
HGI-Gleaning - Heartside Gleaning Initiative (HGI). Gleaning in the Heartside neighborhood Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Hic 2016 - Hic C, Pradhan P, Rybski D, Kropp JP. Food surplus and its climate burdens. Environmental Science and Technology. 2016;50(8):4269-4277.
Hoisington 2001* - Hoisington A, Butkus SN, Garrett S, Beerman K. Field gleaning as a tool for addressing food security at the local level: Case study. Journal of Nutrition Education. 2001;33(1):43-48.
Lee 2017d - Lee D, Sonmez E, Gomez MI, et al. Combining two wrongs to make two rights: Mitigating food insecurity and food waste through gleaning operations. Food Policy. 2017;68:40-52.
Marshman 2019 - Marshman J, Scott S. Gleaning in the 21st century: Urban food recovery and community food security in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Food Studies. 2019;6(1):100-119.
NRDC-Gunders 2012 - Gunders D. Wasted: How America is losing up to 40 percent of its food from farm to fork to landfill. New York City: National Resources Defense Council; 2012.
OFH-Glean team - Ozarks Food Harvest (OFH). New "Glean Team" part of OFH's goal to distribute more healthy food to area pantries.
PFTP-Harvest - Portland Fruit Tree Project (PFTP). Share in the harvest: Harvest programs.
SF DPW-Urban harvesting - San Francisco Department of Public Works (SF DPW). Urban harvesting program: Gather and give back to the community.
Sisson 2016* - Sisson LG. Food recovery program at farmers’ markets increases access to fresh fruits and vegetables for food insecure individuals. Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition. 2016;11(3):337-339.
SLC-FruitShare - Salt Lake City Sustainability (SLC). SLC FruitShare.
Sonmez 2016* - Sonmez E, Lee D, Gomez MI, et al. Improving food bank gleaning operations: An application in New York State. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 2016;98(2):549-563.
SOSA-Gleaning - Society of St. Andrew (SOSA). The gleaning network: Gleaning America's fields feeding America's hungry.
VH-Gleaning - Village Harvest (VH). Sharing our gardens, gleaning, and teaching to strengthen our community.
Vitiello 2014* - Vitiello D, Grisso JA, Whiteside KL, Fischman R. From commodity surplus to food justice: Food banks and local agriculture in the United States. Agriculture and Human Values. 2014.