On Monday, March 21 at the Portland Ave Community Center and on Thursday March 24 at the People’s Center from 6pm-7pm, the Pierce County Gleaning Project will hold meetings to organize volunteers interested in harvesting fruit from city fruit trees for donation to local food banks.
The Pierce County Gleaning Project is a collaborative effort by the Emergency Food Network, St. Leo Food Connection, and Rotary First Harvest’s statewide “Harvest Against Hunger” program to provide more produce to local food banks.
Each month Pierce County food banks and hot meal sites accommodate 147,000 client visits. That’s enough people to fill the seats at Stadium High School’s football field in Tacoma over 11 times. Of these individuals, 39% are children and 14% are seniors. In order to help empower and feed our community members, the Gleaning Project recruits volunteers to harvest produce from local fruit trees, farms, and gardens for donation to emergency food assistance programs. Rather than go to waste, nutritious fruits and vegetables help feed food-insecure families and individuals.
In 2010, the Gleaning Project’s 1st harvest season, volunteers gathered over 1,000 lbs of fruit from neighborhood trees and over 7,300 lbs of produce from Tacoma Farmer’s Markets for food banks. In its second year, the Pierce County Gleaning Project is hosting several free workshops and events, from fruit tree pruning demonstrations to gleaning discussion group meetings, as gleaners prepare for the harvesting season.
All are invited to attend a Neighborhood Fruit Tree Harvest Information session to learn more about harvesting the bounty of the county’s fruit trees!
- Monday 3/21 6pm-7pm Portland Ave Park & Community Center
3513 Portland Ave Tacoma 98404
- Thursday 3/24 6pm-7pm People’s Neighborhood Resource Center
1602 S. MLK Jr Way Tacoma 98405
To learn more about the Pierce County Gleaning Project, to register your fruit tree for gleaning, or to sign up as a gleaning volunteer, visit www.piercecountygleaningproject.org or call (253) 584-1040.