November 4th, 2009 · No Comments

Jan Pruitt, President and CEO of the North Texas Food Bank, says they have been the recipient of a sweet potato project, called the Yantis Yam-Jam, in East Texas. “Volunteers from Dallas churches went out and gleaned at the Yam-Jam. Then the Food Bank took 40-foot trailers and filled them. We then distributed to local agencies.”

Gleaning potatoes in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Although Texas doesn’t have a regional SOSA office (North Texas is not the best place to grow food, although it is good for raising money, says Pruitt), “You could say that ‘food banking’ is a type of gleaning, because we’re taking supermarket throwaways that are usable and edible and giving them to the food pantries,” she says. Breads and other baked goods have long been a staple, but now the Food Bank is getting meats and produce. Grocery stores, she says, are becoming more friendly about it.

“We were green before ‘green’ was cool,” Pruitt says. “We’re keeping good food out of the landfill. We collect about 46 million pounds of food. Twenty years ago this food would have been thrown away.”

Breitinger says the same about SOSA. “We are a very green organization. Eliminating waste is the ultimate green [act].”
SOSA has a very low overhead for a nonprofit because all their food is donated by the growers and they don’t charge anything for the food that is distributed. The only cost SOSA incurs is in trucking food from another location. Breitinger notes that more than 92 cents of every donated dollar goes to providing food.

In the New Testament, the disciple Andrew was present at the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:9) – hence the name: The Society of St. Andrew. Breitinger says that while SOSA has Christian roots, it is an ecumenical organization that works with all denominations.

There are other groups that do gleaning on a smaller scale, says Breitinger, “but we were the first to distribute across state lines. We took it to a national level.”

Children gleaning collard greens in North Carolina (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

SOSA, which is based in Big Island, Va., delivers to all 48 contiguous states with regional offices in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi and Missouri. They are active in about 20 states, and always working to expand, says Breitinger.

“We have seen more need in the last two years,” says Breitinger. “We’re seeing people of all economic stratas who never needed food before, from real estate agents to construction workers.

The North Texas Food Bank has seen the same need. “You don’t really want to be in a growth industry,” says Pruitt, “but that’s the business.” She says the Food Bank distribution is up 47 percent over this same time last year (September 2008 to September 2009) and that the agencies they serve report a 35 percent increase in the number of new faces showing up at their door. Pruitt, who’s been in the hunger business, as she calls it, for 23 years, says people and companies have become more aware these days about wasting food. “There’s a new consciousness today, which is good since these are serious times for a lot of families. “

“ Gleaning ,” says Breitinger, “makes people realize how much need there is, even in suburban communities. Volunteers often say, ‘there for the grace of God, go I.”

Children gleaning apples (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Copyright © 2009 | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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