The Cornell Cooperative Extension of Orange County hosted on Monday, November 11 a gleaning event open to volunteers of all ages and experience levels at Lawrence Farms Orchards. With this gleaning event, the apples will be donated to local food pantries, shelters, and organizations supporting families in need, helping to ensure that fresh produce reaches those who need it most.

Gleaning, defined by the organization Feeding America is “simply harvesting extra crops from farms and gardens to give to our neighbors facing hunger. Gleaning also helps farmers reduce food waste.” Feeding America shares that “farms account for 21percent of all food waste in the United States”. With gleaning, it helps rescue the food that may be at risk of becoming waste.

Lawrence Farms Orchards, located at 306 Frozen Ridge Road in the Town of Newburgh, is a family owned and operated working fruit and vegetable farm. Visitors to the farm during its open season can pick their own produce to take home with before concluding their trip.

The farm welcomed volunteers just before 10 a.m. on Monday morning. Volunteers were ready in proper attire and with bags ready to collect their produce. Stiles Najac, Food Security Program Manager for the Cornell Cooperative Extension welcomed volunteers and helped guide them through the process of collecting the produce and what would be done over the course of the morning.

Boxes and bags of apples were filled all the way by the volunteers. “It’s the best day for apple picking. We have 40 some odd people in the orchard. We have full reign of the orchard so it really feels good. The end of season apple gleans are my favorite,” said Najac.

As the Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching, food access programs and organizations will be seeing heavy volumes of people who are in need. With the gleaning program as Najac explained, the produce is harvested and distributed immediately to agencies or food organizations when they’re open so they don’t have to store it till distribution days. People who come are able to take home fresh produce that day.

For her volunteers, Najac is grateful for their presence and their constant support of the program. “This program wouldn’t exist without them [the volunteers]. We move over 400,000 pounds every season. The biggest thanks to my volunteers.”

Volunteer Cornelia McManus, a Master Gardener of the Cornell Cooperative Extension said the weather was nice for the gleaning event and returned for a second year to be a part of the gleaning. “It’s amazing how many apples they have here, and how much actually goes to waste if someone doesn’t pick. This is good that they’re able to collect them, give them to people that would enjoy them,” McManus said. “It is a unique experience to be picking food as it comes from the tree, as opposed to going in the store and picking it off the shelf.”

The gleaning volunteers went about through the various rows of the apple orchard, taking produce off the trees and collecting as many as they could before the event concluded at noon.