Community Outreach: Salvation Farms
Written by GRP Rower Bridget Schodorf
Over the past few weeks a group of GRP athletes made up of Rowers, Biathletes, and Skiers, have been volunteering at Salvation Farms. Salvation Farms is a Vermont non-profit whose mission is to build resilience in our state's food system, through agriculture surplus management. They describe surplus food as edible food that doesn’t make it to people for various reasons, but is the food they go out and glean, to be consumed by those who need it the most.
You might be wondering what the term gleaning means, don't worry that was the first thing Emma, gleaning coordinator for Salvation Farms, asked us if we knew when we arrived. No one knew. Gleaning just means collecting the leftover crops that were passed up in the harvesting. The crops that are getting gleaned are ones that are generally not as appealing to look at, disformed, or too small, so they are left during the harvesting. However these are perfectly good crops to be eaten, and that’s where Salvation Farms comes in.
Salvation Farms relies heavily on volunteers. Volunteers are involved in the gleaning and food packing process, as well as administrative and office needs. The GRP got involved through one of our athletes, Emily Delleman, reaching out to Salvation Farms to see what it is we could do to help. Emily is currently getting her masters degree at Stanford University remotely, while rowing for the GRP.
The tasks we tackled on our first trip included: weighing and sorting carrots, cutting radishes, cleaning potatoes, sorting peppers, and squash. And then sorting all the food out and packaging it to be delivered to families. The next two trips were gleaning! The first day we were harvesting kale, brussel sprouts, and leeks. And most recently the group was digging for potatoes.
We are looking forward to continuing to get out and help the local community where we can. Especially during COVID times, finding ways to help out in the community is harder to navigate while keeping both sides safe. But Emma and Salvation Farms have their system down. We did our work in an outside space, masks on at all times, washing hands thoroughly before handling food, and gloves on the whole time!