SAP students gleaning apples with Willing Hands
SAP students went to Whitman Brook Orchard in Quechee, VT to glean apples for the nonprofit Willing Hands. Willing Hands recovers fresh food in order to reduce waste, improve health and provide reliable access to nutritious food for neighbors in need.
The collected apples were divided into 2 bins, one for cold storage to be distributed to food shelves throughout the year and the other bin was for Ben Kilham and his black bear research center. The bears eat up to 25 lbs of apples a day!
Through the gleaning process, food that would other wise be completely wasted and left to rot is now feeding people (and bears in need). Willing Hands has 1,000 + individual volunteers, 64 food donors, 82 delivery sites and have delivered 796,202 pounds of food to people in need in the upper valley. The USDA estimated that 30-40% of all food in the US is wasted. People in need go hungry, the energy and resources to grow the food is wasted and we are producing carbon emissions for no reason.
In SAP we are learning how to reduce the many sources of climate change and how to make those sources more sustainable to help our community now and in the future. According to Willing Hands, Dartmouth College Environmental Studies Department found that the work of Willing Hands prevents a million pounds of CO2 from entering the atmosphere each year, the equivalent to taking 100 cars off the road. If you have an opportunity, reach out to Willing Hands and volunteer to glean for your community!
