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Thanksgiving for many is a time of feasting. But for that growing segment of less fortunate Americans, the holiday is just another day they and their loved ones will go to bed hungry.
Area farmers are doing their part to change that. Wasted produce need not be the missing link in the food chain when the Society of St. Andrew steps in and gleans the fields of unpicked or unmarketable fruits and vegetables.
The nonprofit organization partners with growers to see that less food goes to waste and that more people across South Carolina and the United States get a healthy helping of local produce.
Debbie Riley of Swansea is a South Carolina gleaning coordinator with the Society of St. Andrew. She is responsible for the Midlands and Lowcountry regions of the state. Just days before the Orangeburg area's first killing frost, she and her volunteers were gleaning eggplants and bell peppers from the fields of Livingston Farms in Woodford.
Sidney Livingston, who grows a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, was glad to see the produce go to a good cause.
"This is the first year I've had them come in, and it has worked out real well," Livingston said. "I was glad to have her come in and get what she could that was left."
Livingston said the gleaning didn't slow down his schedule on the farm, which might be a concern to some farmers. Riley moves fast when she gets a call about produce being available for gleaning. She and her volunteers get in and out without interfering with the farmer's plans for plowing or putting in the next crop.
"Sidney has been so good to Society of St. Andrew. He has the most beautiful fields - so clean and tidy," Riley said.
Livingston uses row cover and trickle irrigation on almost all of his fields, which means a lot less clambering through the weeds to glean.
Earlier in the week, Riley, over several days' time and with the help of local volunteers, had gleaned 500 pounds of zucchini and cucumbers and 383 pounds of bell peppers.
"We are able to get more volunteers on Saturday when people are not working or in school," Riley said. "Parents often bring their children, and youth groups get involved."
Riley has had a total of 23 volunteers working with her this year. The gleaned produce is taken to locations that are a part of the Lexington Interfaith Community Service outreach, including Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Swansea, God's People in Service in Gaston, Harvest Hope Food Bank in Columbia and the Swansea Senior Center, Myers Residential Care in Calhoun County, Killingsworth Home in Columbia and also individuals they know who are in need. Much of the food gleaned is on the table for supper that night.
"All the farms we've gone to have been really good to work with," Riley said. "We gleaned at the Sandifer and Sons Farm in Denmark several times this season."
Scotty Sandifer said when Riley approached him about gleaning on his family's farm, he listened to what she had to say.
"Once she explained herself and what her organization was doing, I could tell that she had good intent in her heart," Sandifer said. "She explained the whole idea behind St. Andrew and what they did."
Riley and her volunteers gleaned cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables from the Sandifers' fields once commercial harvesting was finished in October.
When she first contacts growers, Riley makes a point of explaining that she and her volunteers are covered by the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act and that farmers need not worry about liability. All produce is weighed and recorded when it is picked. A receipt for the produce is sent to the farmer at the end of the season for tax purposes.
Gleaning is the collection of leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been harvested for market or on fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest what remains.
Through the Gleaning Network, the Potato Project and Harvest of Hope, the Society of St. Andrew provides healthy, nutritious produce to society's most vulnerable through innovative, cost effective programs.
More information can be gleaned through their web site at www.endhunger.org. Debbie Riley can be reached by calling 803-629-6783 or by e-mailing gleansc@endhunger.org.