From Backyard Fruit Trees to a Community Gleaning Network

By Syrus Tator, Girl Scout Gold Award Recipient

Syrus is a college freshman from Vallejo who recently completed her Girl Scout Gold Award to revitalize, strengthen and make sustainable gleaning efforts to get food that would otherwise go to waste to people who can use it. The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can achieve.  Here, she shares about her project.

Syrus (left), and Jesse collect produce at the Vallejo Farmers Market

Last fall, I began working to rebuild the Solano Gleaning Initiative as my Girl Scout Gold Award project. Gleaning is the process of collecting food that would otherwise go unused and getting it to people who can use it. In our case, that means harvesting excess fruit from backyard trees and recovering produce from local farmers markets that might otherwise go to waste.

When I started the project, I knew there were fruit trees throughout Solano County producing more than their owners could possibly use. I also knew there were people in our community who could use that food. My goal was to help connect those two things.

I started by organizing volunteer teams to harvest backyard fruit trees. Homeowners contact us when they have fruit ready to pick, and volunteers come out to harvest it. Homeowners can keep whatever they would like, volunteers are welcome to take produce they can use, and the remaining harvest is donated to Food is Free Bay Area for distribution in the community.

The project grew beyond what I originally expected.

In November, we added weekly produce recovery at the Vallejo Farmers Market. Each Saturday, we bring bins to farmers who expect to have produce left at the end of the market that won’t last until their next market day. We return at the end of the market, collect and weigh the produce, and bring it back for distribution through Food is Free.

Through both backyard harvests and farmers market recovery, the Solano Gleaning Initiative has rescued more than 12,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables in about 10 months.

But the number of pounds rescued isn’t the part of the project I am most proud of.

The most important thing has been building a community around the work. Homeowners have called us back when another tree is ready. Farmers have gotten to know our volunteers and save produce for us. Volunteers who started by coming to one harvest have returned again and again. Our harvests have also given high school students a way to earn community service hours, and Girl Scout troops and other groups have come out to harvest together.

We’ve also developed a partnership with Forstr, another local gleaning organization. Because they primarily harvest in Dixon, Vacaville and surrounding areas, we refer homeowners and harvest opportunities to each other depending on location and volunteer availability. Rather than duplicating efforts, we’re able to help more fruit get harvested throughout the county.

My Gold Award project was never intended to end when I finished my award. We are building the structure that will allow the Solano Gleaning Initiative to continue, including volunteer harvest leads, a farmers market recovery team, and community members who can help guide and support the program.

And we need more people to join us.

There are lots of ways to help. Volunteers can come to an occasional backyard harvest, help collect produce at the Vallejo Farmers Market on Saturdays, lead harvest teams, help with volunteer coordination and outreach, or support the program in other ways. You don’t have to make a huge commitment to make a difference.

One of the things I’ve learned through this project is how much food already exists in our community. Sometimes the challenge isn’t producing more — it’s making sure that the food we already have doesn’t go to waste.

The Solano Gleaning Initiative is one small way our community can make that connection.