The Boston Area Gleaners Duck Caldwell, MBA, BA, Executive Director Kaveri Roy, DNP, CHPN, Treasurer, Board of Directors .

The Boston Area GleanersDuck Caldwell, MBA, BA, Executive Director

Kaveri Roy, DNP, CHPN, Treasurer, Board of Directorswww.bostonareagleaners.org

Objectives

• Define the concept of gleaning• Explain the role of surplus in current farming methods• Discuss need to utilize surplus to feed food insecure

populations.• Describe the facets of organized gleaning.• Identify core characteristics needed in forming a

gleaning effort• Discuss implications of gleaning in food relief and in

public health legislation

Presenter Disclosures

The following personal financial relationships with commercial interests relevant to this presentation

existed during the past 12 months:

Kaveri M. Roy

No Relationships to Disclose

Gleaning: A Revived Method for Capturing Modern Agricultural Surplus

Woman Gleaning Dropped Grain During Harvest depicted in Tomb of Ramose, Thebes, Egypt, 1400 B.C.

Food Secure Americans

80%

Food Insecure14%

Very Low Food Se-curity

6%

US Food Security 2014

20% of Americans represents over 48 million people. In Massachusetts (2014), there are over 767,550 food

insecure individuals

Total Vegetable and Fruit Production

Fruit: 57.2 billion pounds, $18.2 billionVegetables: 43.1 billion pounds, $10.7 billion

Total Value: $28.3 billion

This was generated with only 2% of all US harvested acreage

60%

field10%

wholesale10%

retail10%

consumer10%

One-quarter of this loss would feed 43 million people

three meals per day.

US Food Waste – 40-50% of Total Produced

Setting Up a New Supply Chain- Food Shed, Organizational, and Financial Considerations for Gleaning Programs

What’s Your Food Shed?Tailor Gleaning Program to fit!

Determine Recipient Need• What’s the gap?

• Is there refrigeration?• What’s the delivery schedule?

Knowing these will determine your gleaning goals per trip.

(Do NOT over-glean!)

1) Determine Demand:• Agency Interest• Total Agencies• Total Need• Delivery Frequency• Storage Capacity

2) Determine Supply:

• Number of Farms

• Proximity

• Farmer Interest

• Produce Varieties

• Potential Yields

3) Organizational Capacity

• Establish Measurable Targets

• Volunteer Management System

• Determine Program Size• Create Realistic Budget

Types of Gleaning Organization

• Non profit 501(c)3• Volunteer• Faith-Based• Other (Associated effort with food bank,

community kitchen, other non-profit)

COSTSAvg mileage for gleaning + 1 delivery60 mi x .55/mi (fed rate) = $33 Staff time for organizing, gleaning, + 1 delivery, follow-through (stats, volunteers, FB)8 hours @ $16.00/hr + payroll expenses = $147.20 Pro-rated insurances (WC, Liability, Auto)$50 per each trip (52 sponsored trips last year) Total for one trip = $230

COSTS

Average mileage: Gleaning + 1 delivery Staff time:Organizing, gleaning, + 1 delivery, follow-through (stats, volunteers, FB) + payroll expenses Vehicle expensesStorage expenses

InsurancePro-rated insurances (Workers’ Comp, Liability, Auto)

Boston Area Gleaners 501(c)3

Started in 2004 as volunteer organization

January-December 2014

34 Farms

60 Varieties of Produce

177,003 Pounds

= 708,000 4-oz. Servings

$162, 875 Total Retail Value of Donated Produce

Boston Area Gleaners now serves 40 farms

Reaches over 500+ relief agencies

Has over 1000 gleaning volunteers.

BUT…• There are over 1000

small produce farms in eastern Massachusetts

• Capable of providing 5 million pounds of produce annually

• Able to feed 350,000 people in need.

Federal Legislation

• America Gives More/Good Samaritan Tax Incentive Act (H.R. 644) would have allowed farmers to write off a percentage of their food donations as well as cost of production.

• This would provide about 100 million meals/year according to Bob Aiken, CEO, Feeding America.

• The bill passed the House 239 to 179 in early 2015.• However, the language of the bill was changed in the

Senate and the “America Gives More Act” was dropped from the bill.

States with Charitable Tax Incentives for Farmers to Donate Crops

• Oregon• Arizona• Iowa• Colorado• California• Washington

What Can You Do?

• Organize or become part of a local gleaning effort.• Disseminate information about your efforts so that

others can start their own gleaning efforts.• Ask your legislators to visit a food bank.• Tweet, Facebook, Instagram or call your legislators

about reintroducing a bill to provide tax incentives for farmers for charitable crop donations.

• Spread the word!

Thank you!For more information or for

consultation, please contact: The Boston Area Gleaners

www.bostonareagleaners.org

Resources

• http://www.usda.gov/documents/usda_gleaning_toolkit.pdf

• http://www.ampleharvest.org• http://www.gardenwriters.org/gwa.php?p=par/

index.html• http://www.feedingamerica.org• http://www.foodforfree.org• http://www.usda.gov/oce/foodwaste/resources/

donations.htm• http://www.gleanweb.org/index.php?org=101e