'Tis the Season for Holiday Giving

Wondering how you can  support The Gleaning Project through the winter months? 

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Here's what one group of Adams County Gleaners is doing to help feed our community this holiday season:

Waste Not, Want Not:

"My best friend and I decided to spend our December 'girlfriend day' doing some sort of community outreach, and discovered that The Gleaning project was in need of people willing to open their kitchens and preserve pumpkins and apples for the winter months ahead.  Being that both of us come from families that are big on growing gardens and freezing or 'putting up' fruits and veggies for our yearly use, this was right up our alley! I started thinking about how gleaning is so much a part of the mentality that my grandparents fully embraced.  See, I lost these two huge influences in my life this past year, and the holidays were really starting to make me miss them terribly.

 I started to view this opportunity to volunteer as a way to honor my grandparents:  'Waste not, want not' they often said to me.

Putting a Team Together:

So I decided to reach out to other family members and my church congregation to see if I could get more people involved to make a bigger impact on the community. I went to Thrivent Financial and applied to sponsor an Action Team, which is the company's way of letting its members have a say in distributing some of it's profits to charities and local projects that matter to its members.  My Action Team was approved, and so Thrivent provided t-shirts for my volunteers, organizational materials, thank you cards, sticker labels, and seed money of $250 to help get the Action team up and running.

With 10 people cooking in their kitchens, and an additional 4 others that volunteered extra crock pots, muffin tins, and sweet bread pans, we ended up providing South Central Community Action Programs with 123 quarts size bags of pumpkin puree, 26 bags of homemade applesauce, 8 dozen pumpkin muffins, and 5 loaves of pumpkin bread.

All this in just a weeks time, and leaving about $150 still available in seed money to help make purchases for future Gleaning Project preservation parties (like ziploc freezer bags and canning lids). There's even extra money to buy gas for the box truck that is used to pick up gleaned produce!"

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Sonja and her Thrivent Action Team have been the source of so many smiles at our Adams County Produce Stand (153. N Stratton St Gettysburg). Folks who simply don't have time to process pumpkins have been ecstatic to receive ready-made bags of fresh local pumpkin puree for their favorite recipes. She even provided an awesome recipe for pumpkin pancakes!

Pumpkin Pancakes: Just add half a cup of pumpkin puree to  every 2 cups of dry pancake mix. Cook the pancakes on a griddle at a slightly lower temperature than called for on the box mix. Flip when edges have started to solidify and air bubbles show in the pancake. Once finished cooking, add some maple syrup, peach preserves, or applesauce and enjoy your tasty, nutrient rich breakfast!

When we connect our community, we can move mountains.

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As we reflect on the 2016 season, we want to thank our volunteers and share what you have accomplished for our organization and for our community.  With over 1,000 volunteers this year alone, we know we have a lot of stories to tell. Share your favorite memory with us… about what you enjoyed, what scared you, what surprised you, what pushed you out of your comfort zone… you name it, we’ll share it!

Send us your memories! Via Facebook: www.facebook.com/thegleaningprojectscpa Share pictures to our instagram: @the_gleaning_project Or send a story to our email (thegleaningproject@gmail.com) and we will feature it on our blog. Want to be anonymous? No problem.

Interested in volunteering for The Gleaning Project during the winter months? Check out the volunteer section of our website to see how you can get involved and shoot us an email or phone call so we can get you started! Bridget in the Adams County Office: 717-334-7634 x 162 Jay in the Franklin County Office: 717-492-6269

Thanks again to each and every one of you who has spent time to help reduce food loss and end hunger in South Central Pennsylvania. We couldn't do this without you.