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Gleaning on the Olympic Peninsula
Gleaning is the harvesting of surplus produce for personal use and donation to food banks, schools and other community organizations.
Both in their second years, Olympic Gleaners in Clallam County, and Quimper Community Harvest in East Jefferson County collect thousands of pounds of produce that would otherwise go to waste, and donate it to schools, food banks, senior nutrition, and other community organizations. August through November is the busiest time of year as fruit trees form the backbone of both groups. Olympic Gleaners also gleans vegetables at Nash’s every week through most of the year. Quimper Community Harvest gleaned their first vegetables this year, and expects to glean more in future seasons.
Contacts: Olympic Gleaners can be contacted via their website www.olympicgleaners.org.
Quimper Community Harvest. Contact organizer Seth Rolland at 379-0414 or sethrolland@gmail.com.
Olympic Gleaners and Quimper Community Harvest are OlyCAP volunteer projects.
The OlyCAP Pea Patch is an opportunity for individuals to grow their own produce and learn about gardening while building friendships.
Located in Port Hadlock in a sunny field behind the OlyCAP Thrift Shoppe, our garden currently features 24 plots, five of which are grown for the food bank. We are always interested in meeting new gardeners and volunteers. In our pea-patch style garden, plots are individually rented, so each gardener has the freedom to plant what they like, though as an organic garden we don’t allow chemicals. Even without artificial supplements all of our plots grew exceptionally well this year, including five-foot-tall tomato plants, broccoli heads as big as cantaloupes, and peas as sweet as candy.
Next time you’re at the OlyCAP Thrift Shoppe, please feel free to take a look around the garden. The annual rental fee is $25, plus $25 for water, and scholarships are available. To get involved, contact AmeriCorps Volunteer/Garden Coordinator Cali Keck at 360.302.1221, via e-mail at food@olycap.org or pick up an application at the OlyCAP Thrift Shoppe.
In addition to gardening at the OlyCAP Pea Patch, you can also be a part of our gardening classes. We work with community organizations including the Chimacum Grange and The Food Co-op to offer gardening, cooking, and food preservation classes to our gardeners and others in the community. Please feel free to visit our blog at http://olygardener.blogspot.com/
Food and Outreach
In the summer of 2008 we partnered with the Port Townsend Farmers’ Market to open that beautiful market up to accepting Washington State Electronic Foodstamp Benefits. Want to see a demo of how that works? Check it out on YouTube!
What’s more, OlyCAP distributes food to twelve food banks throughout the North Olympic Peninsula and oversees programs such as Senior Nutrition meals at community centers and the Meals on Wheels program. There’s always a place to get involved in one way or another in helping our community become food secure. Contact us to find a way that suits you.
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