Improving the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project

The Bellingham Food Bank hopes to improve the efficiency and sustainability of its Small Potatoes Gleaning Project this year. In an effort to de-centralize the gleaning process, volunteers have been assigned to specific Bellingham neighborhoods as gleaning captains. In response to an increasing need for the distribution of fresh food throughout Whatcom County, the food bank also hopes to get a cargo van for transporting gleaned produce.

The Small Potatoes Gleaning Project collects produce from local farms, farmer’s markets, and individual homes. Surplus produce and tree fruit that would otherwise go to waste is collected by volunteers with the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project when individuals call the Bellingham Food Bank and request volunteer harvesters. Perishable, unsold produce is also collected from farmer’s markets.

This produce is a valuable source of food for the 8,000 people serviced by the food bank per month. “For clients, fresh fruits and vegetables can be really expensive in the store, so when they are able to take as many ears of corn as they like or a bunch of apples home, they get really excited about it,” Small Potatoes Gleaning Project VISTA Dorothy Mitchell said.

Other, smaller food banks and meal programs throughout the county also benefit from gleaned produce that is distributed by the Bellingham Food Bank. “A lot of the sites we distribute to have very small budgets and can’t buy fresh foods, so this is their only source of high quality food,” Mitchell said.


De-centralizing Gleans

In 2009 the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project gleaned more than 135,000 pounds of fresh food from locations throughout Whatcom County. The idea for de-centralizing gleaning efforts came from the observation that while three-fourths of gleans occurred in backyards, three-fourths of the produce gleaned came from farms, Mitchell said.

In April, seven Gleaning Captains were assigned to territories throughout Bellingham that include the neighborhood they live in and two adjacent neighborhoods. Greg Hope, a resident in the Columbia neighborhood, is the Gleaning Captain for Columbia, Birchwood, and Cornwall Park with Co-captain Andrea Fenwick.

“I am proud to say that I have gleaned fruit trees at several locations in the Columbia neighborhood for Small Potatoes, and I look forward to meeting more of my neighbors on future gleans,” Hope said.

The goal of de-centralization is to allow the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project leadership to focus their energy on organizing large scale farm gleans, while volunteer gleaning captains coordinate smaller-scale backyard gleans. “Fruit gleans from people’s yards are still a really important outreach tool, and we don’t want to see that go to waste,” Mitchell said.

Neighborhood glean captains are also intended to increase the awareness of The Small Potatoes Gleaning Project in their respective neighborhoods, potentially stimulating an increase in backyard gleans.

“The anticipated result is that, in 2010, Small Potatoes will achieve both more large scale farm gleans throughout the county and more backyard gleans within the city of Bellingham,” Hope said.


Becoming a Contestant of the Pepsi Refresh Project

In addition to increasing the number of gleans completed, the Bellingham Food Bank also hopes to see an increase in the distribution of produce collected. Over the last two years the Bellingham Food Bank has seen a 40 percent increase in clients. In addition to this, thirty other hunger-relief organizations throughout Whatcom County receive food distributed by the Bellingham Food Bank.

“As Small Potatoes expands to glean and distribute more fresh, healthy food to a growing number of hungry residents of Whatcom County, the need for reliable transportation will only increase,” Hope said.

For this reason the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project has entered the Pepsi Refresh Project contest to win $25,000 to go toward purchasing a cargo van. The submission will appear online at refresheverything.com/small-potatoes June 1 to be voted on throughout the month. If the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project receives enough votes to win the Pepsi Refresh Project contest for the month of June, the money will be used to purchase a used, fuel efficient, Dodge Sprinter.

In comparison to the current vehicle used for the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project, a new cargo van would provide more reliable transportation, make delivery trips easier, and have a larger capacity to carry produce. A transportation upgrade would give the food bank the ability to “deliver more and deliver more in one trip” to other organizations, Mitchell said.