Gleaners Asking Ag Community To Help Those In Need

With harvest well underway for many of the region’s crops, local gleaning organizations are asking the Ag community to remember the less fortunate.  Lisa William, Executive Director of Fields of Grace, says hunger is still a wide spread problems across the Columbia Basin.  She says growers of any size can help neighbors in need.

“We’d love to have commercial farms as well as the backyard produce, and our universities here, to team with us, to come in and designate a few trees or some crops that are getting picked otherwise.  We’re looking for corn and apples, squash, peppers, tomatoes [really everything].”

William said Fields of Grace provides the pickers and other workers to ensure the process is a trouble free for the owner as possible.  And she says any little bit helps.

“We’ve had one peach tree in a backyard 175 pounds off of it, a prune tree, 353 pounds, so one tree can yields quite a bit of fruit for our community, for our neighbors that need that extra help.”

William said the food they collect goes to 2^nd Harvest which helps Washington communities from Spokane to Wenatchee to the Oregon border.

If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekradio.com