The group at Hidden Brook Farm

  The group at Hidden Brook Farm

 8.25.09: The Campus Kitchen at William and Mary kicked off the 2009 school year with their very first gleaning trip. Jessica Kim and Timmy Siverd, two members of the CKCWM leadership team, coordinated the  trip with William and Mary’s annual Students Helping Out Williamsburg (SHOW) Day. SHOW provided the CKCWM with 10 new student volunteers who were eager to lend a helping hand. Despite the farmers’ regrets that “there wasn’t much left to be picked”, the students managed to glean a total of 550lbs of fresh produce from 3 local farms!  Helen Kidder, a local master gardener and long-time community partner of CKCWM, was instrumental in this gleaning trip. She volunteered her bright blue van for produce transportation, without which, none of this would have been possible. The students packed it full of large, juicy watermelons and heaping bags of tomatoes. By the end of the day, the kitchen obtained 300lbs of tomatoes from KelRae Farms and Allens Farm as well as 50lbs of potatoes and 200lbs of watermelons from Hidden Brook Farm. After all of the produce was collected and sorted, CKCWM had more food than they knew what to do with! They had never had to store so much fresh produce before, so they generously donated to the WM dining services and a local food pantry, and the rest went towards their weekly meal deliveries. All in all, they ended up with 50lbs of watermelon and 200lbs of tomatoes. The rest of the produce (100lbs tomatoes, 50lbs potatoes, and 150lbs watermelon) went to DC Central Kitchen for daily meal production of over 4,000 meals.

New student volunteer at KelRae Farm

New student volunteer at KelRae Farm

 It looks like this gleaning trip will be the first of many for CKCWM. KelRae Farms was so excited to have the students out on the farm, making use of seconds (that would normally be left in the fields to turn into compost), that they invited them back for another round of gleaning this fall.

To read more about SHOW, go to: http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2009/220-wm-students-help-out-williamsburg-123.php 

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