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Year to Date Impact Numbers

  • 40.3 Million Pounds of Food Collected and Distributed
  • 121.1 Million Servings of Fresh Produce Provided
  • 11,639 Passionate Volunteers Engaged
  • 4,480 Events to End Hunger Held
  • 1,480 Agencies Received Food

Do you know why gleaning is so important?

In ancient Israel, gleaning was the law of the land. Landholders could harvest their fields only once, and even then had to leave the corners unharvested.


It was a social safety net, allowing what remained to be picked or gathered by the poor, the widows and orphans, and those who sought refuge.


Through the centuries, gleaning has survived as a way of providing for those who cannot provide for themselves.

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Today, Society of St. Andrew volunteers glean millions of pounds of farm-fresh food from fields and farm markets, sharing it at no cost with feeding agencies in high-need communities, where residents struggle for regular access to the appropriate quantity and quality of nourishing, healthy food.


Gleaning at a farmers market, a successful day may yield 100 pounds of food, that may consist of a dozen varieties of produce. And some fields SoSA gleans are so loaded with food that 50 volunteers can’t possibly gather all the available food in a single day.

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SoSA measures success in more than just pounds of food rescued. It’s also measured by community members coming together in service to their neighbors.


Truly, each time food is gleaned, it’s a success. When fresh fruits and vegetables reach the plates of hungry families, every input, every part of the growing cycle has been a success—soil, seed, land, water, and labor all meet their best use. That’s reason to rejoice!

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Every gleaning event, whether the yield is 100 pounds or 10,000 pounds, offers great stories to tell, and this story is about abundance. 

This story started like most SoSA stories, with a farmer whose field over-produced.


Rather than plowing under their excess sweet corn, the farmer called SoSA, sharing an opportunity for volunteers from several communities to come together to glean—and by sharing the sweet corn they gleaned, bless thousands of hungry people across the state of Georgia.


The abundant sweet corn met abundant volunteers.

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So many volunteers signed up, that SoSA had to split them into two shifts. The first shift started at 6am, and more than 30 volunteers showed up! Some traveled 3+ hours to serve because they wanted so badly to share the sweet corn they gleaned with hungry people in their own community.


As the day went on, the second shift rotated in for their turn. There was so much sweet corn, and the volunteers didn’t want to leave anything behind, continuing to glean as the afternoon sun beat down.

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SoSA staffers had to beg them to stop as the heat index got too high.

Between the two shifts, 70+ volunteers gleaned more than 45,000 pounds of fresh corn that one hot summer day, and the farmer donated another 10,000 pounds of corn they’d harvested the day before.


That’s about 1½ tractor-trailer loads of corn!


This one event provided fresh sweet corn for families in need across a 200-mile span of Georgia, from Atlanta to Tifton.

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By working together farmers, volunteers, agencies, and communities across the country can make the best use of the food (and opportunities) that exist all around them.


Ending hunger is an audacious goal. But when you volunteer or give or invite your friends to join you, you are making the difference for someone in need, one day at a time, one meal at a time. And SoSA’s work couldn’t happen without caring people like you!


There’s still much work to be done. Will you continue to partner with SoSA to bring people together to harvest and share healthy food, reduce food waste, and build caring communities this year? 

Take your next step using the buttons below.

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P.S. - There are many more families struggling with hunger and there are plenty of opportunities to serve. Signup to volunteer and go gleaning. If there aren’t many opportunities for field gleaning in your area, this list offers other simple ways to serve.

Envisioning a world without hunger, in which physical and spiritual hungers are met by God's abundance and grace through Jesus Christ, The Society of St. Andrew brings people together to harvest and share healthy food, reduce food waste, and build caring communities by offering nourishment to hungry neighbors. The Society of St. Andrew is a 42-year old national nonprofit hunger-relief ministry that improves the environment by keeping good food out of landfills and feeds hungry people by sharing rescued fruits and vegetables with front-line feeding agencies (soup kitchens, shelters, food banks and food pantries, etc.) across the country. More information is available online at EndHunger.org.

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