New Haven Independent

The project was started by Marina Spitkovskaya, who had learned about similar, bigger efforts at farmers’ markets in New York City, Paris, and elsewhere. She thought, why not in New Haven?

“It was basically an experiment to try to see whether there was leftover produce, how much and whether it would be worthwhile, and if we could coordinate and get it to agencies that could use it the same day, so the produce wouldn’t go to waste,” said Spitkovskaya (pictured at left, with Wrubel). “So there’s produce, and there’s the people who need it, and there’s the link in between.”

Starting in late June, Gleanings was able to collect more than 1,000 pounds of unsold food that might otherwise have gone to waste, especially among farmers who just came to one of the weekly New Haven markets. Other farmers have other venues where they sell their products, but several of them donated their leftover food anyway.

As he heaved boxes into his truck after the Wooster Square market wrapped up on Saturday afternoon, Daren Hall, manager of George Hall Farm in Simsbury, said he thought the program was a great idea.

Spitkovskaya matched the three biggest farmer’s markets with an organization that directly benefits from the food: the Teen Challenge culinary program, Fellowship Place, and Food Not Bombs. Each group weighs out the food it receives and emails the information to Spitkovskaya, who keeps track of it all. She said the coordination was labor intensive for all concerned “” but she also thinks next year they’ll be able to collect a lot more food, making it all worthwhile.

Wrubel, a full-time student at Southern Connecticut State University, likes the community-building aspect of connecting local farmers with city folks who can benefit directly from the food donations. Click here to listen to his eloquent vision statement.

He said it can be challenging to come up with tasty, nutritious meals when you never know in advance what kind of food you’ll have to work with. “We definitely seek to please people, which is difficult,” he said. For example, “When you’re donated 20 pounds of beets, and you know not everybody loves beets, you have to work really hard to make beets appealing to everybody.”

Calmen Riemer (pictured at left) is another volunteer with Food Not Bombs. He said he finds the work empowering “” both for those who provide the food and those who eat it “” and that Gleanings is a vital connecting piece of the effort.

Jennifer McTiernan H. is executive director of CitySeed, which runs New Haven’s four farmers’ markets in Fair Haven, Wooster Square, Edgewood Park and downtown. She said she’s delighted that Gleanings has come on the scene, and impressed with the group’s sensitivity in appealing to farmers to make donations when most of the farmers are operating on very slim profit margins themselves.

Spitkovskaya said Gleanings is now part of a brand new broader effort in New Haven “” including the Connecticut Food Bank and many local agencies “” to get more food to more people in need. It’s called No Food Wasted, and it’s so new it doesn’t have a website yet. But anyone who wants to get information or to volunteer may contact her here.