[UPDATE: We're pleased to announce Eastern Market as our newest farmers market gleaning partner! Email us at gleaning@breadforthecity.org if you can help us collect surplus produce from Eastern Market on an upcoming weekend.]

This season, about one hundred volunteers have helped Glean for the City gather more than 20,000 pounds of produce! It’s a great success that has already topped last year’s record.

But we need to keep expanding. Sadly, one of our most prominent gleaning partners, Crooked Run Orchard, are victims of an apple blight that is hitting the regions fruit producers. Sam and Utah Brown estimate that they’ve lost up to 75% of their apple harvest. We wish them the best during this difficult time.

In the meantime, we have to make up for the missed gleaning opportunities. So this Fall, we are focusing on more prominently on local farmers markets. And we need help!

So we’d like to introduce a new, fun Glean for the City volunteer opportunity! Join us for Market Gleaning Parties!

Each Sunday, local volunteers will meet us at several different farmers markets. We encourage you to enjoy the market, have brunch with your fellow volunteers, and plan to take action right as the market ends. As farmers are wrapping up, we will collect leftover produce and bring it all back to Bread for the City’s food pantry — where we’ll sort it for the week to come. During a Sunday Gleaning event we can collect over 2,000 lbs of fresh produce!

We’re currently gleaning regularly from two local markets: West End Farmers Market in Alexandria VA and Bloomingdale in DC.

You’ll need to be able to do some heavy lifting, and you’ll also need to be able to transport from the market to Bread for the City.

We are looking for individual volunteers for this Sunday, September 4th 11:30-4:00pm.

And we’re looking for groups of 3-8 people for the following time periods:

  • September 4th 4-6pm
  • September 11, 18, and 25th from 4-6pm

Please let me know if you’re interested! Email me at gleaning@breadforthecity.org. Let’s get our glean on!