In 2012, Northwest Harvest piloted a donation booth at the Yakima Farmers Market. The booth operated as a partnership between Northwest Harvest and a different hunger relief program each week (food bank or meal program). These organizations, referred to as partner programs, used the opportunity…
Northwest Harvest’s Culls for Community program utilizes commercial growers’ existing disposal systems to recover edible but unmarketable produce (culls) in large quantities. Commercial farms typically sort produce in the field or in the packing shed to avoid accruing costs by shipping unmarketable produce to their…
Written by Vera-Camille Ingressa, Fundraising and Development Specialist VISTA. Tabling is just like it sounds: laying information about an organization out on a table, sitting behind it, distributing that information, and answering questions. Simple enough, but why do it? Tabling is a good way to…
Written by Vera-Camille Ingressa, Fundraising and Development Specialist VISTA. Through fundraising and development, work is an ongoing priority, City Fruit does a variety of fundraising events throughout the year to supplement these efforts. Three are GiveBig, a giving drive held in spring, City Fruit Celebrates,…
Written by Vera-Camille Ingressa, Fundraising and Development VISTA. Running a silent auction is a great way to raise funds for an organization. Though similar to a regular auction, this option reserves a nice set of possibilities that are less simple to pull off live. Silent…
On the Olympic Peninsula, the majority of gleaning occurs on small to medium scale, diverse vegetable farms, which brings in a great abundance and variety of vegetables. The different kinds of row crop gleans in the second season have included abandoned surplus crops, abandoned damaged…
“Culling is the sorting or segregation of fresh harvested produce into marketable lots, with the non-marketable lots being discarded or diverted into food processing or non-food processing activities” -Wikipedia The Clallam County Gleaning Program has a much less formal process for recovering culls compared with Fruit…
In order to engage volunteers, it is a good idea to expand their knowledge of local, available produce. New or unusual produce can be featured in the volunteer newsletter. This will encourage volunteers to come to gleaning events that might not otherwise interest them. A…
Clallam County has a rich history of home and farm orchards. The tree fruit in the area includes Apples, Peaches, Cherries, Plums, Pears, and Figs. In addition to this tree fruit, Clallam County can grow several nuts, berries, and vegetables. The environmental good fortune of…
In a location of produce abundance such as Clallam County, finding available produce is not a challenge. Often there is more available than volunteers can pick. Therefore, volunteers should be encouraged to be politely selective about what they harvest and donate. This will ensure that…