“Every glean was an adventure.”

Nora stands next to a T2T van full of gleaned peppers

“We gleaned when it was 90+ degrees and sunny. We gleaned in the rain. We gleaned in bitter cold days. We gleaned when we couldn't find the field, when we didn't bring enough boxes. We couldn’t lift the boxes containing hundreds of pounds of watermelons! We found ourselves in wet fields and with every step we would sink into mud. And we could be called upon to glean at any time on any farm; we never knew exactly when we were going to be out there.

“But in the end, none of these situations stopped us or slowed us down. We had a can-do attitude and we made it happen every single time, through teamwork.”

-Nora Garda, T2T Gleaning Coordinator

Improving equity in fresh food access

Volunteers George and Karen hold up tomatoes and eggplant at a produce pop-up.

We distributed 20% of local produce gleaned this summer at neighborhood produce pop-up events with partner pantries, community centers, and youth programs. These pop-ups reach underserved neighborhoods by delivering food close to where people live and work.

Paula, a community member, visited a produce pop-up one day in August and sent us this message and photos of the veggies she took home:

Boxes of fresh vegetables from a produce pop-up are displayed on a table.

“Your volunteers were the nicest couple, and we enjoyed lending a hand due to the heat and grabbing items for a few people we knew could not make it down and delivering to them so they did not miss out. We will be eating fresh all week and making red sauce we share with others!

Those tomatoes made 149 cups of blanched chunks to store in the deep freezer until the heat passes to make lots of soup and sauces for lasagnas and spaghetti for the 18 people we share homemade food with when I go on a cooking binge, which I have missed doing!”

-Paula, produce pop-up participant

We recovered 50,000+ pounds of fresh produce during the 2021 growing season!

A huge thank you to local farmers and gardeners who partnered with Table to Table during the 2021 growing season, helping us recover more than 50,000 pounds of fresh produce!

This wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work of dedicated gleaning volunteers, as well as T2T staff and a fabulous AmeriCorps gleaning team: Nora Garda, Isabel Hogg, and Jayne Meacham.

Jayne gleans peppers and beets at Trowel & Error Farm in Iowa City

Leading statewide gleaning efforts

Last year, Table to Table helped found the Iowa Gleaning Network and hosted Jayne Meacham as the network coordinator. Based at Table to Table from August 2020-October 2021, she harvested veggies with groups of volunteers at local farms, grew gleaning programs across the state, and improved access to farm-fresh veggies for Iowans across the state and set the program up for success in the years to come.

“When I came to Iowa Gleaning Network (IGN) as the Program Development Coordinator there was pretty much nothing there but opportunity, pulled from the founder’s brains into reality through their knowledge of the food system landscape and hunger in Iowa. By talking to the right people at the right time, and sheer determination and perseverance, IGN was formed to push forward food justice and increase access to healthy food during the economic crisis brought on by the Covid19 pandemic.”

-Jayne Meacham, Iowa Gleaning Network Program Development Coordinator

Jayne’s reflections on gleaning across Iowa

Love and gratitude from your friends at T2T

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