One of the things GleanKY has historically been good at is responding to a need, whether that need be to feed or to harvest. So when we received word on a Thursday morning that buckets of strawberries on a farm in Pulaski County didn’t have final destinations, of course we sprung into action. Pulaski County isn’t inside GleanKY’s current service region, but that’s OK. When a community reaches out to us for gleaning support, we’re happy to respond.
Wilson’s Cedar Point Farm in Nancy, Kentucky, runs U-pick and wholesale strawberry operations in addition to raising a number of other crops. Because of their attention to the freshness of their product, many of the excess berries they harvest cannot be saved to take to the next day’s market—yet they still have a reasonable shelf life for someone who has refrigerator space to store them or who is skilled at making preserves with the seconds. The farmer, Joel Wilson, said himself that it pains him to see all that abundance go to waste, but when it comes to running a business—especially a farming business—some things just fall through the cracks.
A GleanKY supporter sent us the farm’s Facebook plea for someone to come make use of the excess strawberries. “I’ll even pay someone to come pick them up,” Joel wrote. While GleanKY would never take a farmer’s money, we were happy to take the strawberries. That day, I began calling my connections in the area to find out what feeding programs would be able to utilize strawberries as a treat for the people they serve. (Let me tell you, I’ve been gleaning for a while, and farm-fresh strawberries are indeed a rare treat!)
The following Monday, our Fayette County Coordinator Jordan and I packed up the glean mobile and took off on a road trip. Our van pulled up to the farm at a bright and early 8 a.m., and we immediately set out to work harvesting strawberries from a U-pick field that had been shut down for the season. In 2 hours, the two of us alone were able to pick 20 gallons of strawberries—that’s 20 gallons that would have just rotted in the field otherwise. Thankfully, Joel sent out some of his crew to help us, and in total, we rescued more than 50 gallons of strawberries, which went on to support the feeding programs at the following Somerset agencies: Over My Head Shelter, Bethany House Abuse Shelter and God’s Food Pantry.
That was a total win in our book, and a great way to start off the season—but there are still more strawberries!
With the help of our friends in Pulaski County, we’re working to mobilize gleaning crews that can pick up where we left off. Currently, Joel has another shuttered U-pick field that is beckoning our services, and once the strawberry season comes to a close, we’d like representatives from our other GleanKY chapters to join forces with the locals for a big end-of-season gleaning party to clear the remaining fields.
How can you help with this? It’s easy. Join our Rapid Response team. When we get the word from Joel, we’ll send out a text message to everyone on our Rapid Response list letting you know the date and time of the final harvest. Then we’ll set up carpools and caravan down to Wilson’s Cedar Point Farm to clear out the fields before Joel tills them under for the year. We want a hefty portion of the strawberries gleaned to help feed people of Pulaski County, but we’ll also send some strawberries home with chapter representatives to help meet food insecurity in their hometowns.
I love the sense of community that something as simple as harvesting strawberries brings. It’s farmers helping food pantries and soup kitchens. It’s neighbors coming together to help other neighbors. An unfortunate situation, such as gallons of potentially wasted strawberries, can be transformed into a community celebration of the harvest, where not only is that excess put to use, it’s helping to nourish some of the most vulnerable among us. And who doesn’t appreciate a nice juicy red strawberry this time of year?