On the 21st of June, I volunteered with a small team for a Gleaning event near Ormskirk in Lancashire. Before this day, I had no knowledge of Gleaning work or about the Feedback Organization. The Gleaning Network brings volunteers and farmers together to distribute products to charities and to those in need.
It also raises awareness of the scale of food waste in farms that derives from supermarkets policies and consumers’ misconceptions. As I learned from the local farmer the reason for this huge loss can be down to different reasons such as products that are already produced by the farmers getting cancelled by the supermarkets. Also they are only able to sell a factor of what they produce due to high standards dictated by supermarkets; where a small deformation can result in supermarket rejecting them. They have created a vision of perfection where they must be clones of each other. The result of this is farmers being left with products that are no longer wanted and without volunteers, they would have to pay for harvesting.
On the day, we were able to harvest a field of Kale and lettuce and not only that but we managed to fill two vans! Today I was informed the first batch was taken to Preston and the second delivery was to Manchester for those suffering from food poverty. To hear that our work meant there will be people who will have access to healthy food is great and to think all these crops could've been wasted is shocking!
Before I share photos from the day I just want to say if you are reading this then please research more about the project and even volunteer if you can. Not only does these events help the community but it also brings people closer.
Of course, I had to test out the products to truly express why we should be more open minded when it comes to selecting produce. I made kale chips which goes perfectly with siracha sauce and also rice wraps with soy sauce.
I was told there would be a gleaning event very soon in Lancashire so please keep an eye out for that and I will be linking websites below so please check it out. Also thank you to the lovely Emma Bartlet who is the North West Gleaning Coordinator for helping us with transportation and being so helpful on the day. I will be volunteering in the future so keep an eye on my social media for upcoming events . :)
Website - http://feedbackglobal.org
Twitter - +Feedback
Facebook - +Feedback
Instagram - feedbackorg
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