Gleaning and improving nutrition for food banks
Type de pratique Reuse for food
Nom de la pratique Gleaning and improving nutrition for food banks
Nom de l’acteur principal Parker Farms
Type d’acteur(s) Cultivateurs, Consommateurs
Pays United States of America
Etape de mise en œuvre Consommation, Exploitation
Année de mise en œuvre 1989
Opérations déjà accomplies/en cours Parker Farms in Oak Grove, Virginia, USA,
has welcomed gleaning groups since the
late 1980s, to gather what is left after
harvests. According to the farm manager,
the biggest value to the farm is
that product raised for the purpose of
consumption is actually consumed. He
also explained that much of the food
gleaners do gather was initially left behind
for purely cosmetic reasons – a
curved cucumber or a sparse ear of
corn, even though once sliced, no one
would ever know it once was curved.
During warmer months, groups from
Bread for the City's programme
called Glean for the City travel to
Parker Farms with volunteers to
gather discarded or overlooked
produce, sometimes collecting
up to 900 kg in a single trip.
Résultats et impacts This
collection of different kind of
produce such as apples, sweet
corn, squash and broccoli
greatly improve the nutritional
content of food shelter
meals, while making the
best use of the natural resources
used to create
this food. The FWF model
calculates that, given
the average footprint of
vegetables in USA at
the production level,
saving 900 kg of produce
is equivalent to
saving 2 173 kg
CO2eq and 85 000
m3 of water .