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As we embark on the 2023 Feds Feed Families Campaign, we look back to the prior year and the tremendous efforts of Departments, Agencies, and their Champions in finding ways that federal employees can help the food insecure. While there is no right path and every effort moves the needle, I wanted to share one way my colleagues and I sought to contribute to our nationwide efforts. Since were on-site for a meeting in Rhode Island, we reached out to a local non-for-profit and gleaning organization, Hope’s Harvest, about a month before our arrival. This gave us ample time to connect with the organization and determine the logistics from our on-site location to the gleaning site. It was very moving to hear the program’s mission, “Bringing local bounty to people in need,” and to be able to participate in their gleaning efforts.
Hope’s Harvest is a program under Farm Fresh Rhode Island that utilizes volunteers to support gleaning – crop gathering – opportunities at local farms and growers with whom they contract to procure surplus fruits and vegetables to aid hunger relief agencies across Rhode Island. According to Hope’s Harvest metrics, these gleaning efforts provide 35,000 people per month with rescued food across Rhode Island. With approximately 11.4% of Rhode Island’s population determined to be in poverty by the Census Bureau, all of these efforts help.
To nominate a food bank, pantry, or network for a feature in an upcoming FFF newsletter, please send entities’ name, point of contact and website to fedfeedfamilies@usda.gov.
Dawn Bartolomeo
2023 Feds Feed Families Deputy Chair
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