[Cross-posted from Beyond Bread.]

Aaaand we’re gleaning again!

On Saturday, more than a dozen Bread for the City volunteers drove down to Parker Farms in Colonial Beach, VA. Some of our volunteers were BFC donors; others found out about the project from an NPR story about it last year; and still others learned about it from the DC Food For All. All of them were ready to roll up their sleeves and come to the rescue of the farm’s surplus sweet corn.

There was more out there than we’d expected. We gleaned just one acre out of 100s that were available to us, and left at the end with more than 1,700lbs of corn in tow. Farmer Rod Parker met us in the fields, and at the end of the day he told me, “my only complaint is that you didn’t bring enough bins.”

Why is so much corn left in the farm’s field? Here are some reasons:

1) Human error: laborers inevitably miss a certain amount of corn that is market-ready and perfect. Farmers often opt not to pay for a second pass through the fields, but are happy for volunteers to come do it.

2) Undersized/under ripe: corn that is too small to sell is left behind, even if it is edible. Shoppers are so picky that almost every type of produce has size minimums and shape requirements. Under-ripe corn is also left behind. It’s not as tasty or filling, but still edible — and often ripened by the time we get to it.

3) Damaged: corn that has been eaten or broken. There wasn’t actually that much corn that was actually damaged, and we left it all behind too. There was way more of the good stuff to be had.

This successful trip marks the launch of the second year of Glean for the City, a project that already feels like a cherished tradition around here. Last year, we rescued 50,000 lbs. of fresh, surplus produce from farms and farmers markets, including apples, bell peppers, broccoli, and a plethora of other fruits and veggies — an average of 2,000 lbs. of fresh produce every week! All for free, all food that otherwise would have gone to waste, but instead went to the kitchen table of the DC residents who need it the most.

The farmers love it, our volunteers love it, our clients love it, and our community was so enthusiastic about it that you all helped us win a contest on the internet, ensuring that we had enough funding to cover the cost of a full-time coordinator to manage the program. (Speaking as this year’s new coordinator, I want to say thank you!)

You’ll be really excited by what we have in store this year. First of all, we’ve extended the gleaning season by one month, and connected with new farm partners to bring in more quantity and a healthier variety. We aim to bring in 3,000 lbs per week this time. And we’re even partnering with other local food pantries to run coordinated gleanings and share the bounty!

In fact, I hope to someday honor our Food Pantry Director Ted Pringle’s goal of ultimately replacing all canned vegetables in our pantry with farm-fresh produce.

If you’re interested in volunteering, or if your community group or organization might want to partner with us, please email me. In the meantime, if you’d like to support this work, you can help us cover the cost of transportation and other things like bins, bags, gloves, and so on, by making a donation to Glean for the City today.

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Common Good City Farm

Over the past year, Bread for the City has worked to expand our gleaning program to provide fresh, local produce to our clients. We are kicking off this season with a Glean for the City event on Saturday, July 17th and we need your help! We will travel to Parker Farms in Colonial Beach, VA. Join us in the fields, and help collect more than a ton of delicious sweet corn for our food pantry. The event will last from 9am to 2pm, including driving time. For more information, please contact Vince Hill.
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After weeks of unforgettable heat, the day dawned fresh and inviting, just the type of weather we needed for our first ever client gleaning project at Common Good City Farm. Sure enough, the day turned out to be educational, delicious, and fun.
Common Good City Farm, located about a half a mile from BFC’s NW center, is a neighborhood farm dedicated to raising awareness about food and food justice in DC. In addition to selling some of their produce to local restaurants, CGCF runs programs and workshops for low-income volunteers and school-aged children, as well as the curious, casual gardener. Several clients expressed interest in Common Good’s “Green Tomorrows” program, which provides a bag of fresh produce to low-income residents in exchange for two or more hours per week of instructional, hands-on work on the farm.
Spencer Ellsworth and the other staff at Common Good City Farm generously took time to share their knowledge of urban gardening, basic plant care and food preparation.

Spencer Ellsworth, our CGCF guide for the day

They weren’t the only ones ready to teach. Antoinette Jones, a grandmother born and raised in North Carolina, was one of the stars of the day. A long time client, Ms. Jones embodied the excitement and enthusiasm of our volunteers, waxing lyrical about a childhood in the country and the joys of gardening. She helped to make everyone feel at home in the garden, more specifically the cabbage patch. She taught everyone, even Spencer, a thing or two about how to keep your cabbages healthy and how to get the most out of your plants.
“It’s too late in the year for another [cabbage] head to grow, so you pop them out like collard greens…cut ‘em, clean ‘em, throw ‘em in the pot with a piece of meat, whatever you got and it taste just like collard greens!” Even if down home cooking isn’t your thing, Ms. Jones had some money-saving advice we could all use. “How many know how to make spices from the tops of your vegetables?” She asked the group as we rested in the shade. She patiently explained how to dry and prepare the tops of vegetables to make the spices normally sold for $7 or $8 dollars at the supermarket; chive from spring onions and a parsley substitute from carrot tops. “And now, what you’d buy in the store for $8 somethin’ dollars, you made it for free!”

Ms. Jones shows another client how to pull cabbage

But wisdom doesn’t always come from the most experienced among us. One of our clients, India, brought along her son and daughter at their expressed wish. “I told them about the trip and they were so excited…we love fruits and vegetables so anything they can dig up out of the ground, that’s good for them.” Antonio, 10, and Ania, 4, were a testament to their mother’s pride, ducking excitedly from patch to patch, pleading to be allowed to cut, pull, or dig something. “What can I do next?!” was a near constant chorus from the siblings and Ms. Jone’s young granddaughter Kayla.

Ania, 4, was our youngest gleaner of the day

These kids defy stereotypes; not only do they love healthy foods, but Antonio proclaimed his favorite vegetable to be broccoli! Kayla couldn’t contain her enthusiasm. “Whatever is green is good and I am going to eat it!” she declared amidst the still-tender squash beds. Ania’s enchantment was enough to capture the hearts of the entire group, as she pulled out a few my-size-beets and laid them gently in the bins to be brought back to Bread for the City with an ecstatic “Yeah!”.

The joy was palpable as our clients cut kale, pulled carrots and and clipped cucumbers to replace the canned goods that ordinarily adorn our food bags in the NW center.

Many of our clients were especially touched when they brought the gleaned produce back to our NW food pantry and saw how their hard work would translate into better food for them and their fellow clients. “This is so wonderful,” remarked one client. “”I’ve been [wanting] to volunteer for BFC for a long time! It’s great to pick produce for the pantry! We need to do this again!”

We ended the day tasting just-ripe peaches and discussing the meals people would make with the food they had picked with their own hands. BFC’s nutrition consultant Sharon Gruber spoke about the importance of “eating with the seasons,” using all the parts of the fruit and vegetables, and how to maximize your spending potential at farmer’s markets.

Many clients expressed an interest in returning to CGCF. None had heard of the urban farm before this trip, and all were impressed at the scale, scope, and mission of the organization’s work. Despite the convenient location of the community garden, few clients were aware of the possibilities that lay in this once-fallow field. Upon seeing the farm for the first time, one client remarked, “I never knew this garden was here! This is so cool to have right in our backyard!”

As we gathered for a picture to commemorate what we hope will be the first of many opportunities for our clients to be an active part of Bread, Kayla summed up our feelings in a way only a child can. “What a perfect picture for a perfect day!”

Our first ever client gleaners!

What better way to end the day than by uncovering local food powerhouses in the Nation’s Capital! On Wednesday, April 21, 2010, the USDA and HHS Centers for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships convened to visit two jewels located in Washington, DC: Common Good City Farm of Ledroit Park and Healthy Solutions of Anacostia.

Common Good City Farm is an urban farm and education center growing food for low-income residents in the city and providing educational opportunities for all people to increase food security, and improve human health and environmental sustainability.  Common Good City Farm was funded in part by a National Institute for Food and Agriculture Community Food Project Grant.

The University of the District of Columbia’s 4-H Club has just partnered with the farm to help their kids learn to grow and eat healthy food.  Supported by USDA, the goal of the 4-H program is to assist young people in developing knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will enable them to become self-directing, responsible, productive citizens.  Common Good City Farm has been successful in part due to strong partnerships with organizations like the 4-H Club, as well as community support from organizations like the Advisory Neighborhood Commission and Mount Bethel Baptist Church.

Next, we journeyed across the river to visit a Healthy Solutions youth cooking class. Started by Tanikka Cunningham, Healthy Solutions’ mission is to promote healthy lifestyles in underserved communities.  The students cooked up and ate four delicious dishes that included a fruit salad, a mesclun spring salad, an eggplant pasta sauce, and a tri-colored pasta dish.

Healthy Solutions works in Alabama, North Carolina, and Washington, DC to create community-based food systems that allow access to healthy affordable foods.  The organization also focuses on agricultural job creation and training, healthy living education, and youth development.  Healthy Solutions operates a produce coop in DC and sells food to local corner shops in the neighborhood.

There are only three major chain grocery stores east of the Anacostia River, so the impact of Healthy Solutions, which brings 10,000 pounds of fresh produce into these communities each month, is critical.  The Obama Administration’s proposed Healthy Food Financing Initiativewould send more resources to help bring access to affordable, fresh, and healthy food to communities like Anacostia.

Cross-posted from the USDA blog

Thursday May 13, 5-8pm
425 Second Street NW

We’ll kick things off with a short discussion about DCCK’s efforts to source local produce from 5-5:30. Then we’ll get to prepping!

During co-op shifts, volunteers help prep fresh produce from local farms for use in the 4,500 meals that the Kitchen distributes each day to clients at shelters and other social-service areas.

DC Central Kitchen has made great strides in recent years in sourcing local produce whenever possible. To supplement donations, DCCK purchased more than 50,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms last summer and fall – and saved money while doing so.

In addition to prepping produce for the next day’s meals, evening volunteers vacuum seal vegetables to freeze and use in the winter and help make homemade healthy snacks for clients at after-school programs. The staff members who supervise our evening volunteers graduated from DCCK’s Culinary Job Training program, which prepares men and women in transition for careers in the culinary industry.

RSVP to dcfoodforall@gmail.com.

The D.C. Guerilla Gardeners is brand new. I started it because I’ve been interested in urban gardening and guerilla gardening but there didn’t seem to be any groups in the area that were geared toward this type of activity.

I honestly think that my interest in urban gardening is the result of my love of graffiti and street art. I’ve developed a real interest in street art as I’ve walked through D.C. and discovered the work of local artists, such as Diabetik. I get such joy in seeing something creative where it, arguably, doesn’t belong. Seeing how a blank wall can be turned into a thing of interest, a topic of discussion, made me wonder about the other blank canvases in the city: empty lots, sidewalk cut-outs, abandoned garden beds.

My first experiment in gardening came in the form of the sidewalk cut-out in front of my boyfriend’s D.C. rowhouse. A sad tree grew there, buried in a dismal mound of depleted soil. Looking at that spot every day made my heart ache, so I marched myself into a local nursery, bought some things that looked interesting, and set off on a frustrating yet rewarding gardening experience. I watched my azaleas die and wondered why, when the succulents planted near them took so well. I cry when people tramp through my Coral Bells (Heuchera) and break their purple leaves. I sit and pick out discarded cigarettes, straw wrappers, and paper cups from between the fragile leaves of my sedum.

I love that little piece of Earth, and I’ve been told by my boyfriend’s neighbors that they do, too. Knowing that someone else enjoys seeing those plants grow despite the odds, has impassioned me to plant again. And it seems that I’m not the only one. The response to D.C. Guerilla Gardeners has been positive and sincere.

You can join the movement this Sunday:

* What: The FIRST-EVER D.C. Guerilla Gardeners Event! Woo!
* When: Sunday, April 18, 2010
* Time: 10am – Completion
* Where: T Street NW at Vermont Avenue NW
* More Where: Location is one block from the U Street/African American Civil War Memorial Metro stop on the Green Line.

* Bring: Bottled water (for yourself to drink), sunscreen (we like to make things green, not red), gardening gloves, your preferred garden tools (spade, trowel, shovel, etc.)*
* RSVP: If you’re so inclined, let D.C. Guerilla Gardeners know you’re coming so that we can be sure to bring enough snacks. Did I say, “Snacks?” I SURE DID! There will be snacks, oh yes indeedio.

We’re also planting seeds of a different kind: we’re teaching people to grow food. Starting in April, Program Director Bea Trickett will lead a series of workshops that will take DC residents from preparing soil to pruning tomatoes. Each participant tends her own plot at our site near Fort Totten and takes home the fruits – and vegetables – of his labor.

Our neighbors tend the rest of NFI’s land. The space is open to everyone and it’s volunteers who make it a working farm.  Yesterday we cleaned out our shed: 15 trowels, 29 pairs of gloves, rolls and rolls of drip line, 7 shovels. They’re ready for use.

Soon the collards, plus kale, lettuce, Swiss chard and more, will be ready for eating. Right now, we’re raising money to buy the truck that will make our fledgling farm work, and hoping you’ll help out by coming out to our Barn Dance Fundraiser next Saturday at St. Stephens Church. More details here.

We’re hosting volunteer workdays each Saturday and one weekday evening each week. This weekend we’re turning compost and cleaning out last year’s detritus: come by from 9-1 to get your hands dirty.

For me, weeding a bed or digging a trench is fulfilling not only because I can see I’ve made a difference, but because I know that people growing their own food – particularly in the city – is connected to the biggest issues we’re facing: poverty, climate change, health care reform, to name a few.

In the face of those challenges, our acts are small, like the first true leaves of collard, but they’re growing and growing. I hope you’ll join us.

Email neighborhoodfarm@gmail.com to get involved.