By now, you’ve seen the statistics. 2016 has been a year full of red letter days for us:
January 27th – We began our 7-days a week gleaning partnership with Lucky’s Market.
March 7th – We hired our first Development Director to ensure our mission would continue for years to come.
June 2nd – We joined the Hunger Task Force to advocate for our neighbors at the state level.
August 1st – We announced funding that would enable us to bring the GleanKY model to 8 counties by 2018.
August 16th – We gleaned our millionth pound of fresh produce.
September 19th – We hired a Fayette County Coordinator to increase the impact of our work where we were founded.
November 4th – We gleaned over 7,000 pounds of pumpkins, making for a record single-day gleaning.
These milestones are inspiring as we strive to do more to reduce food waste and hunger every single day. We enjoy sharing and reporting these milestones with you. As inspiring, though, is the joy we see and hear every time we share fresh produce with our neighbors.
Here is just a sampling of the comments from volunteers, talking of the true happiness fresh produce can provide.
“They were so happy to see all of the produce.”
“They were already talking about all of the mango smoothies as we were leaving.”
“The delight on their faces made my day as they selected from all of the produce. Strawberries, blueberries, apples, potatoes. They were just thrilled.”
“Gerry actually hugged me for all of the food. And Ginny commented that all of the produce was amazing.”
“One woman was VERY excited to see a watermelon. People were circling and gleaning the minute I walked in the door.”
“When they received the produce today they were all absolutely overjoyed. The idea that they’ll be receiving fruit and vegetables on a regular basis is like a dream come true for them.”
“They so truly appreciate this chance to have better, healthier lives and fill our language lessons with stories on how they prepared each vegetable from the week before.”
May joy fill your heart this new years and may you commit to sharing that joy with others in 2017.