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2024 AGO International Gleaning Symposium�Track 2: Building Your Skills�

How to Farmers Market Recovery: The Ins and Outs of Gleaning Farmers Markets

Melina Finck and Aubrey Pacheco-Dul, Food Forward

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How to FMR:

The Ins and Outs of Gleaning Farmers Markets

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Food Forward fights hunger and prevents food waste by rescuing fresh surplus produce, connecting this abundance with people experiencing food insecurity, and inspiring others to do the same.

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The Food Forward Family

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It all started with a dog walk…

In 2009, when Rick, Food Forward’s CEO and Founder noticed an abundance of citrus fruits in his neighborhood. In an effort to not let the fruit go to waste, he gathered his first harvest team through Craigslist, and together they rescued 800 pounds of fresh citrus to donate to a local food pantry.

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Backyard

Harvest

Farmers Market Recovery

Wholesale Recovery Program

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2023 at a Glance

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Backyard Harvest

Recovered 438,936 pounds of produce
Hosted 851 events
Served 133 agencies

Farmers Market Recovery

Recovered 534,876 pounds of produce
Hosted 697 events
Served 41 agencies

Wholesale Recovery

Recovered 86,225,323 pounds of produce!
517 donors
Served 146 agencies

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Wholesale Recovery

Produce is recovered Monday through Friday from the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market.
The Wholesale Recovery Program is comprised of two components that live on the same site at our warehouse in Bell:

The Pit Stop
The Sprout

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Backyard Harvest

Nearly 3,000 properties are registered for harvesting.
Harvests vary in scale, team size, and produce type.
The produce is picked up by or dropped off at a local hunger-relief agency for further distribution.
All fruit donors donating produce receive an End of Year Receipt for their in-kind donations.

Melina:

The Backyard Harvest Program is the one that started it all, and has been going strong ever since!
There are nearly 3000 properties registered for harvesting, including neighborhood gardens but also larger scale operations like the Huntington Library Botanical Gardens in Pasadena, and the Franklin Canyon Orange Grove near Beverly Hills!
Depending on the season, there may be more or less properties ready for harvesting, but at the moment we have nearly 200 with ripe produce.
Harvest Leaders “claim” these properties through our portal and build their own harvesting schedule.
Some leaders harvest solo or in duos, while others lead large teams of general volunteers.
Once harvested, the produce is either picked up by or dropped off at a local hunger-relief agency for further distribution.
All produce is being donated as an in-kind donation, and we provide a receipt to all property owners annually.

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Farmers Market Recovery

16 weekly farmers market gleans in LA and Ventura County.
Market gleans led by trained Glean Team Leaders or Food Forward staff.
Each market glean has a roster of trained leaders and partnered hunger relief agencies.
Donations are picked up onsite by local hunger-relief agencies, who redistribute the food to their communities.

A:

Our Farmers Market Recovery Program consists of 16 weekly farmers market gleans in LA and Ventura County, with plans to add three more markets to the program this year.
Each market has a different roster of trained Glean Team Leaders (or GTLs), although some leaders may choose to cross train and lead at several different markets.
Every market glean is led by a trained Glean Team Leader or Food Forward staff member, and 11 of our market gleans are open to the general public through our online calendar.
All produce is donated as an in-kind donation, and every participating farmer or vendor is sent a receipt annually.
Donations are picked up onsite weekly by our partner hunger-relief agencies.
Some markets have just one weekly agency, while others have up to 4 different agencies picking up weekly.

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Take place weekly at the end of a farmers market for 1-2 hours.
Glean Teams may consist of one solo leader or a team of six or more gleaners.
Each market has its nuances, but the gleaning process is the same.

Farmers

Market Gleans

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Box Distribution

Box Collection

Weighing and Redistribution

Pick-Up

Time

Welcome and Orientation

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Welcome & Orientation

Box Collection

Weighing and Redistribution

Pick-Up

Time

The Glean Team gathers at a designated meeting spot and are welcomed by the leaders. After a little orientation, the team gears up and is ready to start!

Welcome and Orientation

Box Distribution

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Welcome and Orientation

Box Collection

Weighing and Redistribution

Pick-Up

Time

As a team or in smaller groups, the gleaners distribute prepared empty boxes to vendors interested in donating. Vendors’ names are written on the boxes before handing them out so that the donation weights can be measured and recorded accurately for an End of Year Receipt.

Box Distribution

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Box Distribution

Weighing and Redistribution

Pick-Up

Time

After a short break, the team recollects the boxes that are now filled with fresh donations. Donations are gathered in the “staging area” and prepped for the next step.

Box Collection

Welcome and Orientation

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Box Distribution

Box Collection

Pick-Up

Time

Weighing and Redistribution

The Glean Team Leader will direct the weighing and redistribution of donations so that each scheduled Receiving Agency is allocated a fair and varied amount of donations.

Welcome and Orientation

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Box Distribution

Box Collection

Weighing and Redistribution

Pick-Up Time

Receiving Agency drivers arrive at their scheduled pick-up time, return empty boxes from the previous week, and load up with fresh donations!

Welcome and Orientation

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Building a Glean

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Partnering with a

Farmers Market

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Connecting with Vendors and Farmers

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Assembling a Glean Team

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Partnering with a Receiving Agency

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Partnering with a Farmers Market

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Photo Credit: Eron Rauch

Connecting and scouting
Forming a partnership
Securing storage

MELINA:

Let’s take a look at number 1 - Partnering with a Farmers Market!
One of my responsibilities as the Community Programs Coordinator is to scout new markets for gleaning and set the foundation for a solid partnership.
Sometimes we have our eye on one specific market, and other times there may be three or more markets we’re interested in learning more about.
When it comes to choosing a market that will produce fruitful gleans, we pay close attention to the number of produce vendors present, the markets foot traffic, how accessible the market would be for volunteers and the Receiving Agencies, and whether we have a volunteer base in the community already.
Of course the basic things like the opening hours of the market and the day of the week it takes place is also considered. On our end, we have a preference for weekend markets with more than 15 produce vendors; this helps us narrow down which markets can realistically be gleaned by Food Forward. This number will of course vary depending on the area, but it’s good to set a baseline for feasibility for gleaning.
One component that might be easily forgotten, but really determines whether a glean can run smoothly every week, is onsite storage!!! There are always workarounds eg. if materials have to be delivered weekly by a staff member, but having somewhere to store gleaning supplies near to the market so volunteers can access it without our staff onsite ensures that our gleans can run as independently as possible.

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Connecting with Vendors and Farmers

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Photo Credit: Eron Rauch

Introductions
End of year receipts & tracking donations
Maintaining relationships

AUBREY:

So let’s say you’ve partnered with an awesome market team, and now it’s time to connect with the vendors and farmers.
If farmers market communities aren’t already familiar with your work, it really pays to take the time to introduce yourself, your mission, and how your market gleans will function upon launch.
In our program we do this by hand delivering letters to all produce vendors several weeks before our first glean.
These letters, available in English and Spanish, explain who we are and how farmers and vendors can participate.
We collect participating vendors’ contact info so we can share an annual receipt for their donations, and also provide our contact info so they can reach out with any questions or concerns.
Whenever a new vendor or farmer wants to donate, we provide them with a contact info slip so we can onboard them into our database.
Beyond just tracking donations weekly, our staff and volunteers also form lasting friendships.
Part of maintaining these friendships and relationships involves ensuring that all of our volunteers treat vendors with respect, and vice versa.
Farmers and vendors are not only important to our gleaning process, but also the wider community on a whole, so all of our work is done with gratitude and compassion.

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Assembling a Glean Team

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Volunteer recruitment
Training and expectations
Scheduling and coordinating
Volunteer retention

MELINA:

As a lot of you know, volunteers are what keep this work moving. With a staff of only three dedicated FMR coordinators, we could not do this work without our incredible volunteers.
We have about 130 active glean team leaders that glean anywhere between once every other month to a couple of times a week!
Our volunteers are recruited through the usual websites, through word of mouth from current volunteers, or from folks just seeing the work that we do at markets! (We’re hard to miss with our bright orange aprons).
When a volunteer is interested in training to become a glean team leader, they are on-boarded and paired with a coordinator who walks them through the entire training process.
One requirement of our glean team leaders is to lead at least 6 times over the course of a year. Since we dedicate time and resources to training our leaders, we like to ensure they’re able to commit and be a part of the community.
Glean team leaders sign themselves up through our online portal, but we often reach out to them to fill in the gaps ex. If someone has to cancel last minute, or if a market doesn’t have enough leaders signed up in advance.
We’re lucky to have a community of tight nit volunteers and we like to focus on celebrating their achievements through awards and gifts and overall, being there for them whenever they need us! In 2023, 97% of our volunteers said they would suggest our volunteer opportunities to their friends!!
Melina riffs about love for all of our GTLs

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Partnering with a Receiving Agency

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Photo Credit: Eron Rauch

Receiving Agency requirements
Establishing a partnership
Pick-up & back-ups

AUBREY:

Bringing it all home, the last step is ensuring the food has somewhere to go
Some agencies apply through our website, while others are connected through our current RAs.
How ever we find each other, the same eligibility criteria is required, those being that the agency cannot charge their community for the food, nor can they place barriers to receiving the food. For example, we do not partner with agencies that require community members join their club or attend a seminar in order to receive food.
Eligible agencies are offered pick-up slots as they are available, and the agency’s capacity, location, and distribution schedule are considered when finding the best slot for them.
In our program, Receiving Agencies agree to pick up donations weekly at a set time and adhere to our policies on tardiness and cancellations. Of course things can happen on the day of (ex. A driver is sick, or a vehicle malfunctions), so we always have a back-up agency listed and schedule fill-in agencies whenever needed.
Just like with vendors, our volunteers often become friendly with the agency drivers, and occasionally our volunteers will end up volunteering with the receiving agency as well!
We’re very lucky to a kind and reliable community of partner hunger-relief agencies, all doing their own incredible work and showing up for us every week.

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What if I need help

?

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Introducing:

FMR in a Box

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We’ll help your glean grow!

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What we provide:

Detailed steps for how to launch and maintain a farmers market produce recovery program
Logistical workflows and instructional materials
Support with building stakeholder relationships (market management, farm vendors, volunteers and hunger relief organizations)
On-site training
Volunteer recruitment and management tips
Ongoing ad hoc support post-program launch

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Reach out for info:

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Questions about FMR in a Box?

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Contact inspire@foodforward.org

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Thank you!

FOODFORWARDINC

@FOODFORWARD

Team Email: fmrecovery@foodforward.org

Coordinators: aubrey@foodforward.org

ayden@foodforward.org

melina@foodforward.org

Farmers Market Recovery Line: (323) 451-2010

Connect with us: