Fancy a bit of Gleaning ....

Gleaning day coming up on Friday 10th May:

On Friday 10th May, the Gleaning Network will be heading down to a farm in Broadstairs, Kent to harvest tonnes of cauliflower and save them from going to waste, redistributing them to food poverty charities. We need volunteers to help harvest the tasty produce! Join us for an idyllic day on the farm. Contact martin@feeding5k.org to find out more, sign up to volunteer, or help coordinate. The day will be roughly 10am-5pm (TBC), and travel expenses are covered for those travelling from Kent. If you can't join us this time, sign up to our gleaning list and we'll let you know of all future gleaning days. Also, let us know if you'd be interested in coordinating gleaning days in the future,as we have loads of gleanings days planned in Kent over the next few months. Join the Arable Spring!

What is Gleaning?

Gleaning Network UK, recently featured on BBC Radio 4's Food Programme and Al Jazeera, and organised by Tristram Stuart and Feeding the 5,000, is an exciting new initiative to save the thousands of tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables that are wasted on UK farms every year. Farmers across the country often have no choice but to leave tonnes of their crops unharvested and get ploughed back in the soil. These crops often cannot reach the market either because they fail to meet the retail strict cosmetic standards or because of overproduction.

We coordinate teams of volunteers, local farmers and food redistribution charities in order to salvage this fresh, nutritious food and direct it to those that need it most, such as homeless hostels and charities. To date, we have salvaged several tonnes of excellent unmarketable British produce, including apples, cabbages, cauliflowers, spring greens and kale, and redistributed them to charities such as FareShare and the Best Before Project. Here's some more info, our video, and pictures of our last gleaning day. The movement is gathering pace, and we're rapidly expanding into a national network, with a hub now launching in Lincolnshire and Norfolk, encompassing Peterborough.

See you in the fields!

Many thanks,

Martin Bowman
Gleaning Co-ordinator
http://www.feeding5k.org/
http://www.tristramstuart.co.uk/