Dear Deal With It,
I'm
writing to you from a new waste project working with farms around the
UK, and we have a gleaning day coming up which may be of interest to
your members. If you'd be happy to spread the word we'd be very
grateful! Do let us know if you share the event, or if you have any questions :)
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 mar...@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.
Many thanks,