Gleaning program helps to share summer's bounty

LACONIA — As most gardeners know, there comes a point in the season when you just have more zucchini, or tomatoes, or beans, than you can personally handle. Rather than watch the produce rot, you might invite a neighbor to come into your plot and take what they could use.

This act is known as “gleaning,” combing through a fruit or vegetable patch, usually after the main harvest, to collect what might otherwise go to waste.

In the Lakes Region, thanks to the Belknap County Conservation District, the act of gleaning has been scaled up to include several local farms, a team of volunteer pickers, and local institutions that agree to host distribution of the yield.

It can add up. Last year, with six local farms participating in the program, more than 18,000 pounds of fresh, local fruits and vegetables were harvested and given away to local people in need. This year, hampered by poor growing conditions, only two growers — Petal Pushers Farm, which plants a greenhouse explicitly for the gleaning program, and Timber Hill Farm in Gilford — had enough to participate, and the overall yield is likely to be “significantly less” than last year’s haul, according to Lisa Morin, program coordinator for BCCD.

Yet the program, diminished by a rainy year, will still result in thousands of pounds of fresh vegetables making it onto the plates of local residents who might not have access to produce of that quality.

The veggies are distributed through various local institutions, such as nursing homes, residential facilities, senior centers, shelters and, for the last couple of years, on the front lawn at the Laconia Congregational Church.

Hollis Thompson, a member of the church, said she learned about the gleaning program when a fellow church member told her about finding some of the vegetables in a “harvest box” at the library. She remembers thinking, “You know, I think it would be something that our church would like to do.”

Gleaning distribution at the Congregational Church started last summer, and continued this year. A recent addition at the church has been the availability of nonperishable items from the NH Food Bank. Thursday was expected to be the final distribution of the year at the church, an earlier end than usual befitting an altogether unusual year.

Thompson said the distribution started off slowly this year, with about 15 people coming to the first vegetable giveaway. But word spread quickly.

“Now we have people there at 1:30 [waiting in line] who want to get vegetables at 2 o’clock,” Thompson said. “It’s all good vegetables, and a variety of things.”

Recent distributions have included corn, cucumbers, several varieties of summer squash, onions and tomatoes.

There’s no test of need or exclusions, all members of the community who need fresh produce are welcome to come, Thompson said.

“It’s anybody who wants to come up there and get vegetables. Anybody in the community that comes by and sees it, if they want to come by,” they are able to leave with some fresh, local food. If people offer to pay, Thompson said she encourages them to direct that money toward another worthy charity. “We always told them, that’s not what it’s about. It’s to offer to people who would like to have it, who need it ... It’s a feel-good program, all around.”

Though this season’s weather has bedeviled farmers and gardeners, it hasn’t dampened enthusiasm for the gleaning program, Thompson said.

“I feel like it was a success,” she said, expressing her desire for it to return next year. “It’s one of the things that makes me feel good. I like doing things like that. There’s only so much a person can do on their own. This is something that we can do, with the help of [Belknap County Conservation District], we can do this.”

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