Five members of the Campus Kitchen at the University of Virginia (CKUVA) went gleaning with DC Central Kitchen to round out summer operations as students returned to Campus, and they saw potential in the peaches.

The peaches were Red Haven Yellow Freestones, and set to peak in late July to early August, so by August 12, they were more than ripe for the picking. But University of Virginia volunteers picked up something more during their day at Hollin Farms in Delaplane, Va. : a new drive to infuse their meals with fresh produce through gleaning trips run much like DC Central Kitchen’s.

“I’m going to try and contact some places around Charlottesville about gleaning apples,” says Atlee Webber, CKUVA’s coordinator.

“DC Central Kitchen chopped up all of the peaches and froze them to save for the winter, when fresh produce isn’t readily available.” Webber says she hopes to do the same for CKUVA with apples.

Webber says she also sees value in encouraging volunteers to do something different than meal shifts, bringing them outside, and allowing them to interact with other people in the food production mix.

“Farmer Tom actually got us to eat the peaches right off the tree to see if they were good,” she says.

The group, along with a larger volunteer group from Whole Foods, filled the buckets DC Central Kitchen brought in just one hour. They gave their peaches to DC Central Kitchen to freeze this time around, but they got a gleaning test run out of the experience, and also a new understanding of Campus Kitchens’ parent organization and mentor.

“A lot of people didn’t know about DC Central Kitchen before this,” says Webber. “That was a great example of operations that are well run. It was good to see our potential.”

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