CNEP Uses Gleaning for Learning Opportunities
By Lani Vasconcellos & Carlene Jordan
"Each year in fields, commercial
kitchens, markets, stores, and restaurants, billions of pounds of food goes to waste... We
need to find a way to get this into the mouths of the hungry and not into the mouth of a
dumpster."
--- Dan
Glickman, Secretary of
Agriculture
Grocery store produce managers pull fresh fruits
and vegetables from the shelves daily because the produce is past its prime even though
the food is still safe and nutritious. Many stores routinely throw this food in the
dumpster. However, CNEP is working to reverse this trend. NEAs work with the produce
managers to take the produce removed from the shelf. In turn, the NEAs take the produce to
the enrolled program families scheduled for lessons during the day. This is a modern day
version of gleaning that comes from the biblical era practice of permitting poor people to
glean the field for what food might have been left by the harvesters.
The program appealed to the NEAs since is not
unusual for children of enrolled families to go to bed hungry. NEAs found it difficult to
teach nutrition to families who were struggling to provide food for their families.
Families often do not eat enough fresh fruits and vegetables needed for healthy immune
systems. The gleaning project provides valuable learning opportunities for enrolled
families in helping them
incorporate fruits and vegetables into their diets. It allows
them to try a variety of nutritious foods that are unfamiliar to them without risking
their limited food dollars. In addition, families can learn new ways to prepare the food
with the NEAs' help. For example, when the NEAs received a big supply of apples, they
helped families make a low-fat apple cake. Another week, they helped families make salsa
since they had lots of tomatoes.
NEAs often have families cry when they come to the door with a sack full of produce. Letters of support document that enrolled families are now feeding their children fresh fruits and vegetables for snacks instead of junk food - fruits and vegetables that they learned to love because of the gleaning project.
Check out the following article that was posted in the Spring 2001 Ag @ OSU.
