Thursday, February 24, 2011

Cooking for Gleaners

Well it appears that we now have a "Gleaner-Like" entity here in Sisters Yay! Its about time.
It took me a couple of weeks though, the remember how to "Do" this gleaner thing.

Basically it is an organization that has members who collect up the ready-to-expire produce, dairy and baked goods, from local grocery stores who are willing to participate. Often, Gleaner-Style Organizations have a tax write off (501-C3?) status allowing the stores to write off the potential spoilage as a charitable contribution.

Generally, the recipients of Gleaners-Organizations can be homeless, or out of work families, or even just families trying to make ends meet.

Some organizations have you pay dues (on a sliding scale), volunteer to pick up food divide food for families in the group or be a host for people to come and pick up the food. Generally volunteers have less dues, and sometimes, no dues at all. Same for income levels of individuals or families. the homeless generally pay no dues.

I remember now...how to process such foods:

-Everything that can go into the freezer goes there immediately.
-Anything that needs t be eaten immediately, is eaten within 24 hours
-Any fruit or vegetables that can be, are baked, roasted, simmered into sauce and then frozen after the fact. Apples: apples sauce. Tomatoes - duh! etc.

Dairy products are always a gamble - use immediately, and nlu after checking for still-goodness. If goodness is even questionable - it goes to the rubbish bin/composter.

As a consumer, when I see businesses that donate their perishables to these organizations, it has teh affect of amking those same people - needy or not, want to turn around and spend what few hard earned dollars they have, back at the participating store.

It is a beautiful, reciprocal thing.

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