Gleaning Hope is a fairly new club at the Claremont Colleges, which partners with Inland Valley Hope Partners to bring fresh local fruit to people who are in need of food. So what exactly do we do? Well, the Gleaning Club organizes “Gleans”–picking/harvesting delicious, ripe fruit–in the local Inland Valley area. Property owners donate the fruit from their trees and we (volunteers from Gleaning Hope) pick it! Afterwards the fruit is brought to one of the Inland Valley Food Partners’ pantries, where it is distributed to those in need.
Our basic goal and purpose is to bring a cost efficient, healthy source of nutrition to those who aren’t given a the choice. Usually, pantries provides food that is mostly canned goods; while this is beneficial to the organization because it has a long shelf life and cheap, it doesn’t provide for a fully balanced diet. By voluntarily gleaning a fresh supply of fruit for the pantry and, in turn, for the clients of the pantry, we create a more cost efficient source of nutrition and variety.
At the same time, we are providing a service to our local fruit growers, who find themselves with an overabundance of fruit to eat alone. Many times fruit growers will just let the fruit rot; we give them an outlet for them to give to the community and also cut down the amount of waste that goes on!
Contact
If your interested in learning more about getting involved with Gleaning Hope email us at ivhp.gleaninghope@gmail.com
