After spending months travelling around with the SNAP outreach team, I started helping with the Arkansas Gleaning Project, another program of the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. The Gleaning Project helps the food banks get fresh fruits and vegetables that they would normally not have access to because of cost. Many farmers have leftovers after they have harvested their contracted amount, and the price they could get to do a second harvest isn’t worth it. Without the Gleaning Project, most of this after-market produce would just go to waste. With the Gleaning Project, farmers in various regions of the state have the opportunity to contact the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance and donate what’s left after their harvests to their local food bank.

The Gleaning Team is contacted by the farm owner and dispatches a truck from the local food bank to pick up the produce. Then, someone has to actually pick the corn, berries, tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage or whatever else. Sometimes volunteer groups or people from different organizations come in to help harvest the produce, but most of the time the gleaning team is working with inmates from different prisons.

I remember the first day in the field with Brandon Chapman, food sourcing & logistics programs coordinator. A co-worker had warned me ahead of time to wear appropriate clothes and make sure to cover myself—which I did— but I couldn’t quite get rid of the weird feeling in my gut. I was about to meet male inmates and correction officers. I have never even known a person who has been in prison. When I was on the road with the SNAP team, I talked to several people who had to spend some time behind bars, but for some reason that seemed so different to me, however, very quickly I started to understand the relationship between all participants.

The Gleaning Project doesn’t just help to get more produce for the food banks. It also helps inmates restore their lost trust in society. I had some very interesting conversations that helped me understand, why this project is so important. Many inmates lose their hope and strength in prison. There is not much to do, and they feel stuck because it is obvious to them that there is nothing they can do to free themselves out of this situation. By doing hard work in the field, they get to prove to the guards that they are willing to change and willing to fight for another chance in life. The more time we got to spend together and the more often we talked, the more interest they also showed in our lives and they wanted to know what exactly it is we’re doing. We explained to them what the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance does and what our work usually looks like and they also wanted to know what we’ll do with all this corn. When they found out it would go to the local food bank, and be distributed to people in need through pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters, you could see the surprise in their faces. Knowing that what they did really was important and appreciated gave them a motivation to continue their hard work over the next days and made them feel important to our society again.

The Gleaning Project is probably one of the greatest things I’ve experienced in my time at the Alliance, because I can see how purely good it is on every level. Farmers donate what’s left after their harvest, inmates get new motivation, and in the end, families in need have food on their tables. It was a beautiful experience for me to be part of this, and I just want to encourage everyone to do what they can to support projects like this that help our society grow and flourish.