Eleanor Despina used to pick all the Stayman winesap apples in her backyard and press them for hard cider. But as she’s gotten older, the task of harvesting nearly 200 pounds of fruit has become more challenging. This year, she decided to recruit the West Marin Glean Team to take the produce and use it for a good cause. Her apples were turned into fresh cider for the first annual Shoreline Harvest Festival at West Marin School.

The glean team was formed in July 2022, the result of conversations between the West Marin Food Systems Group and local food pantries. It was designed to combat food insecurity in West Marin by connecting local farms to homebound seniors and impoverished families. 

Madeline Hope, an Inverness Park resident and co-chair of the group, said the team kicked off after Commonweal Garden and Little Wing Farm contacted them to offer extra produce. Over the last year, the team has gleaned at farms across West Marin, and this fall it carried out the first three residential gleans like the one at Ms. Despina’s home in Point Reyes Station. 

For many people, access to nutritious and locally grown food is hard to come by, especially in West Marin, where pantries and grocery stores are usually a driving distance. According to Community Action Marin, food insecurity has risen over the last year among low-income families and communities of color in Marin. One in five families—and one in three seniors—is struggling to put food on the table. Last year, 61 percent of Shoreline Unified School District’s students qualified for free or reduced-price meals. 

Reba Meigs, an administrator for the food systems group, said the team has gleaned roughly 1,000 pounds of produce since the start of the program.

“They have a model of not just gleaning, but building a more resilient food system for locals,” Ms. Meigs said. “To help accomplish this, the glean team focuses on local farms and keeping food within the communities they glean from.”

The six farms working with the glean team include Little Wing Farm in Point Reyes Station; Commonweal Garden and Star Route, Gospel Flat and Fresh Run Farms in Bolinas; and Green Gulch Farm in Muir Beach. Ms. Hope said they are hoping that more will join. 

“We were focused on bridging the communities of West Marin, getting everyone involved, having a curated messaging mechanism to tell community members where and how to access food,” Ms. Hope said. “We are really at a pivot point right now and there’s plenty of room for more farms to be onboarded.”

Peter Martinelli owns the 25-acre Fresh Run Farm in Bolinas. Gleaners have visited his farm once a week since July to harvest extra food items that are hidden, are too small for sale or are what is known in the gleaning world as “ugly produce”—items that could have scarring or imperfections but still taste the same.

Fresh Run Farm supplies two restaurants in San Francisco, Cotogna and Quince—the latter one of six Michelin three-star restaurants in California. In the past, Mr. Martinelli has driven over the hill to give his extra produce to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, or he has fed it to the animals on his farm. For a small operation like his, spending a few extra hours on the farm instead of driving can make a big difference. He said the glean team has given him more time to work and has kept his food in the community. 

“It’s a big change and really gratifying. I’m saving a lot of time now,” he said. “I also know all the food is going directly into our community. With the other places, it might be in bad condition by the time it gets there.”

Bolinas’s temperate climate and nourishing soil allow for a broad assortment of leafy greens, root vegetables, citrus and winter and summer fruits. When Mr. Martinelli’s team is pulling a crop, there comes a point when they’ve taken out everything immediately accessible. The glean team will come and harvest up to an additional 100 pounds of potatoes that otherwise would have stayed hidden underground.

The labor cost of spending a whole day digging up all the hidden produce would be more than Fresh Run Farm would make selling it, Mr. Martinelli said. Last month, Fresh Run provided the glean team with more than six dozen heads of leafy greens and 30 pounds each of summer squash, apples and cucumbers.

After the glean team distributes the produce to local food pantry, a volunteer will take any leftovers to nearby schools and senior housing.

“To me, it’s an ethical thing,” Mr. Martinelli said. “In order to produce a premium product, there’s always going to be excess of some kind. I feel it’s so important that it gets used and not wasted.”

 

To request a harvest or to volunteer, visit https://extrafood.org/get-involved/donatefarmproduce/