by Joslyn Brown

Kohlrabi hearts from Mother Earth Farm were a fraction of the 27,000 pounds of food gleaned this year with Harvest Pierce County.

This year's gleaning season boasted a record-breaking year in terms of volunteer engagement, consistent farm gleans (totaling close to 27,000 lbs., but sadly our last season working with the fine folks of Mother Earth Farm), and the beginning formation of a central distribution center.  

While the fruit wasn’t as abundant as it was during last year’s bumper crop season, this year the Gleaning Project had 364 new community members register as volunteers to aid in the mission of our programming. During our harvests we welcomed 257 distinct volunteers who donated 1,373 hours to harvesting, washing, packing and distributing fresh food to our community. All of these numbers not only reflect the highest volunteer engagement year for the Gleaning Project, but also the absolute goodness and desire to help that we have the privilege of witnessing in our community.

In all, we were able to rescue a little over 45,000 lbs. of food from the waste stream with about 25,000 lbs. going to hunger relief, a little over 7,500 lbs. going to bolster local small businesses who are able to utilize our pest- and disease-ridden fruits, and about 7,500 lbs. being shared with harvest volunteers, site stewards, and enriching home and municipal compost systems alike. 2024 was a great year for the Gleaning Project!