Volunteers take to fields in harvest against hunger

• Gleaning is practice of reclaiming consumable produce not suitable for supermarket
• Department of Agriculture says 50 million couldn't afford food over previous year
• More farmers setting aside acreage for donation

On a sunny September morning, more than 100 volunteers gathered at John and Carolyn Marker's orchards near Winchester, Va., to pick apples that had fallen to the ground.

Ready for consumption but not suitable for the supermarket, where consumers have come to expect near-perfection, the Golden Delicious were sent to nearby food banks.

The process, called gleaning, is one of the growing trends in the struggle against hunger in America. Volunteers descend on farm fields across the country to reclaim some of the estimated 7 billion pounds of fresh produce left in farmers' fields or sent to landfills each year, recovering it for the plates of millions who can't afford it.

As the cash-strapped federal government tries to meet record demand for domestic food aid, private efforts -- even small-scale ones such as that which took place for a few hours on the Markers' orchards -- are being depended upon more and more.

Betty Heishman, the Winchester-area gleaning coordinator for the Society of St. Andrew, who coordinated the outing, organizes volunteers to glean slightly bruised or misshaped apples, turnips, potatoes, beans, peaches and other fresh produce from willing farmers' land. They begin in late spring and go through fall.

She says she runs into more and more people -- especially elderly on fixed incomes or parents with hungry children in tow -- who tell her they avoid the fresh-produce aisles in grocery stores because they can't afford it.

"You can't take a child through a grocery aisle and have her see a pretty red apple and say, 'No you can't have that,'" says Heishman, whose organization coordinates gleaning activities in 20 states. "This is ridiculous, this waste. So we are putting that apple out there in those kids' hands."

Gleaning is a small part of what's needed for a growing demand. The Department of Agriculture announced last month that roughly 50 million Americans couldn't afford to buy food at one time or another over the previous year and that 17 million were chronically forced to skip meals. The latter figure was a rise of 800,000 over 2010 as Americans struggled to recover from the worst economic conditions since the 1930s. In June, the 46.7 million Americans receiving food stamps were a record.

The need is not going away anytime soon. As unemployment lingers above 8%, the federal government is running deep deficits, and cuts in food programs are possible in the next round of budget negotiations. High commodity prices have not only put some groceries out of the reach of the poor, they have resulted in fewer government purchases of commodities under the price support system for farmers.

Food banks have historically depended on those surplus purchases as a key food source. Private networks have stepped in, and private companies have stepped up."Our system is incredibly overburdened," says Maura Daly, chief communication and development officer for Feeding America, the nation's largest domestic hunger-relief charity. The Chicago-based organization distributes food to more than 200 food banks around the country, large warehouses that distribute food to 61,000 food pantries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, senior centers and other distribution agencies.

Feeding America's latest "Hunger In America" survey in 2010 found that 37 million Americans got food from the network at some time in the previous year, an increase of 46% over 2006. About 5.7 million were served in any given week, up 1.2 million over 2006.

Thanks to gleaning, but primarily from direct donations from farmers and food processors, wholesalers and retailers, the reclamation of otherwise wasted fresh produce has steadily risen. In the year ending June 30, Feeding America distributed a record 549 million pounds of produce, up 52% over 2008.

The Environmental Protection Agency says 105 entities -- from food processors to universities to Major League baseball clubs -- have joined a food-recovery program the EPA began in the past decade.

The EPA says 34 million tons of unmarketable produce and table scraps went into landfills in 2010. It was the largest source of solid waste, and the rotting food produces methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas.

Gleaning and other produce-reclamation efforts coincide with a national crusade against obesity, led by first lady Michelle Obama. Obesity can be a side effect of low-income diets heavy in starch and processed foods.

"If you are on a budget, you are going to buy macaroni, pastas, anything that will put a big meal on the table without a lot of money," Heishman says. "A lot of seniors we deliver food to don't buy produce, period, because they can't afford it. So they are really excited when we come."

Farmers have started setting aside acreage for donation or shipping slightly bruised or misshaped produce that buyers shun in supermarkets. Manufacturers produce canned goods for food-aid groups for free. Daly says a melon grower near Fresno, Calif., provided a food bank daily this fall with about 28,000 pounds of fresh melons that weren't perfectly round.It's a constant struggle to stay on top of the demand. In 2008, Feeding America distributed about 2.1 billion pounds of food, from donated canned goods to government commodities to fresh produce. It handed out 3.4 billion pounds in the 12 months that ended in July.

Though the amount of federal surplus commodities was down by a third from 2011 to 2012, Feeding America's take from cash donations to buy food and donations from retailers, wholesalers, processors and producers were up significantly. Many of the donated items are approaching freshness maturity dates but are still edible, and major companies such as Wal-Mart, Target and Kroger have made "a big commitment to donate as much product as possible from their stores," Daly says.

Daly wonders whether prolonged economic malaise and potential budget cuts have created a "new norm" for anti-hunger groups.She says gleaning, though a "point of entry and a wonderful way for people to feel connected to the issue of hunger," is only a small part of the effort necessary.

So food banks and donors are getting creative.The Food Bank of South Jersey, which distributes to 240 largely faith-based pantries, soup kitchens and missions in four counties, has teamed with Camden-based Campbell Soup to create "Just Peachy Salsa," out of leftover peaches from a New Jersey farm cooperative.

The farmers donated enough leftover peaches -- mostly too small for regular normal processing, or misshaped or bruised -- to make 52,000 jars of the salsa, which also includes tomatoes, cilantro and other ingredients. The salsa is likely to bring in $100,000, which the food bank will use to buy peanut butter and other staples for the poor.

New Jersey is the fourth-largest peach-producing state. Lydia Cipriani, a spokesman for the Food Bank of South Jersey, says the idea for the salsa came about when her organization heard from peach producers that not only were they concerned about wasting food they could not sell, but farmers in the cooperative were shelling out $85,000 a year to haul the unwanted produce to landfills.

"So we have a Jersey product, raised by Jersey farmers, manufactured by a Jersey company and distributed by a New Jersey food bank," Cypriani says.

"We all have the same end goal in mind," says Amanda Bauman, senior manager for community affairs and program director for the Campbell Soup Foundation. "We don't want to see food wasted, and we don't want to see people go hungry."

She says Campbell sees the salsa as a prototype for future anti-hunger partnerships.New Jersey peach growers are happy, too."We don't want to see our product go into a dump," says Anthony Yula, who grows 500 acres of peaches and nectarines at Summit City Farms. "These crops are something we work our tails off all year to produce."

He says, "We throw out millions of pounds of perfectly good peaches" because "unfortunately, the way the times are, people want a big, pretty, solid peach. The days of people buying a soft peach to make a pie are days gone past."

Cypriani's food bank serves 9 million meals annually to 173,00 people."We are seeing a gradual change in hunger in our area," she says. "There is an increase in demand, but one of those under-reported statistics is that it is moving from urban areas out into our suburbs, many southern New Jersey suburbs that never knew hunger."

Michael Johnson of Arlington, Va., says he's seen "a pretty significant need" while volunteering at a food bank. When Johnson saw a sign calling for gleaners, he decided to act. He and his girlfriend, Corinne Carpenter, and Michael's three children, Michael, 11; M'Kyla, 7; and Malachai, 6, were among those who came to John and Carolyn Marker's orchards.

Johnson says the family talked about the Bible's charge to glean. "To serve and provide food for folks that are less fortunate than they are instills a sense of community and giving back," he says of his kids.

The Society of St. Andrew began in 1983 after a farmer at an anti-hunger event offered to let volunteers come to his potato fields and pick leftover spuds. Last year, 30,000 volunteers in 20 states reclaimed nearly 27 million pounds of produce through gleanings organized by St. Andrew.

At the Markers' orchards, gleaners picked about 18,000 apples that Heishman says would be gone in three or four days."Some were on tables that night," Heishman says.