Monday, October 7, 2013

Gleaning in Kent this Saturday

Calling all glorious gleaners around Kent and London!

Gleaning day this Saturday 12th October 10am-5pm (TBC):

Hi everyone! As the new Kent coordinator for the Gleaning Network UK, I invite you to join us for an idyllic day on a farm near Canterbury in the Kent countryside, saving literally tonnes of delicious fresh pears that would otherwise have been wasted. All the produce will be going to charities dealing with food poverty via our good friends FareShare.

Travel expenses are covered for those travelling from Kent, London and nearby - just check with us first!

Over the past year, the Gleaning Network has already saved 32 tonnes of fresh fruit and veg for food poverty charities, across 16 gleaning days with nearly 200 volunteers.

Please join us in the fields!
If you can make it, please email eugene@feeding5k.org, and confirm whether you can make the whole day, and send me your phone number, and where you'll be travelling from (e.g. Canterbury, London etc.) so we can group you with fellow travel companions.

We'll then send you finalized details closer to the time. Please get in touch asap so we have an idea of numbers. The more people we have, the more of those 1,000s of pears we can save for charity! Also, please do check whether you can make it, as lots of drop outs at the last minute can jeopardise the gleaning day going ahead!

Please spread the word to your friends and networks, and do recommend any groups you think we should get in touch with!

We're also looking for a driver to transport the produce from the farm to FareShare in London - if you'd be interested in driving a van (normal driving license required) for the day, then please get in touch!

If you can't join us this time, watch this space - we'll have more gleaning days coming up over the next few months! If you have friends who are interested in signing up to our gleaning list, which means they'll get notifications like this one when gleaning days are coming up, please get them to sign up here.
See you in the fields!

Many thanks,
Eugene Nulman
Kent Gleaning Coordinator

http://www.feeding5k.org/
http://www.tristramstuart.co.uk/

Follow us @
www.twitter.com/#!/Feeding5k <http://www.twitter.com/#%21/Feeding5k>
https://www.facebook.com/feeding5000
http://www.feeding5k.org/

Haven't signed the Feeding the 5000 pledge yet? Go to http://www.feeding5k.org/ and make your voice heard!

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.

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