Today is the first annual National Gleaning Day
To me, it is a celebration of homegrown food, harvest and an action against food waste. But when I looked up what was happening locally, in Michigan and around the country, no celebrations could be found. A quick Google search of the term “National Gleaning Day” gave me practically nothing. In fact, the search engine even tried to change the term by stating, “Did you mean National Cleaning Day?”
No, I didn’t mean National Cleaning Day.
Gleaning is collecting unwanted, extra or leftover crops from fields after harvest. It stems back to the Old Testament. For instance, the Holiness Code or Leviticus 17-26 and the Deuteronomic Code of the Torah said farmers should leave leftover crops in the field for the poor or anyone who may need it.
Today, it is has become an activity that many national organizations practice for similar reasons. For example, the Society of St. Andrew is dedicated to gleaning to provide for America’s hungry. Food Not Bombs, an anti-war group, often volunteers in gleaning projects to create food that they serve to the hungry throughout the world.
Perhaps events are scarce because this is the first time that National Gleaning Day is celebrated. The only ones that I found were on a farm in California and a Community Co-Op in Montana.
I guess I just expected that there would be more happening in the Great Lakes region, since many of the states have some of the highest percentages of farmland in the country. I was hoping to find an event in the region to write about, but, it turns out that the story has become that no one, not even Google, really recognizes National Gleaning Day.
At least you will now.