Early one Sunday morning in September, I biked to a farm in Ojai where the owners had about 30 trees full of perfectly ripe oranges they wanted to donate. Dave and Barb, the lead volunteers for Food Share that day, explained how we would “glean,” or pick, the fruit in a quick twisting motion to avoid damaging the peel.
Dozens of oranges were beyond my reach, so I used a long pole with a claw-like device to grab those. It was like the game where you try to grab a toy, except this felt even more fulfilling because I knew I was helping someone who needs food. The work was challenging, but it was only a couple hours.
Dave explained people used to volunteer in the fields picking vegetables and fruit, but their efforts to recruit volunteers were not successful because it was too hard and too hot. Imagine what it’s like for the fieldworkers all over Ventura County who do this all day, every day!
On this citrus farm, 10 of us worked together to fill two massive crates in the back of a truck with oranges. These would be taken to a distribution center and sent to various locations depending on various cities’ needs at the moment: Maybe places in Los Angeles could give folks in Ventura diapers and clothes, and Los Angeles locations would get the oranges and other produce. The system is thoughtful and efficient! I was impressed and humbled working with people who care so deeply about our food crisis and devote countless hours to getting people food and supplies they need to live well.
Find a time to volunteer near you—it was easy and heartwarming!
FOOD SHARE
To further gain insight into our county’s food aid system, I volunteered for Food Forward one fall Sunday at the Ojai Farmers’ Market. As the market was winding down, I walked around asking vendors how many boxes they thought were needed for their leftover produce they planned to donate. Then, the other couple volunteers and I put their boxes together, labeled them and dropped the boxes with vendors.
The vendors were unbelievably fast at packing produce into boxes—dozens of 50-pound boxes full of veggies were ready for us to cart to a central loading point in a couple minutes. At this point we weighed the food, noted the donation amounts for vendors to use on their tax donation receipts and boxes were loaded onto a truck that would drive directly to Help of Ojai for distribution to people who need food.
I was astounded by how much produce was donated from vendors like Milliken Family Farms, Earthtrine Farm, Frecker Farms and others—500 pounds in total! I love to buy food from the farmers’ market, and it was interesting to see the market from the farmers’ perspective. I loved feeling like I was working with the vendor and a part of a bigger effort to feed our community—I wasn’t just shopping for food.
The vendors are incredibly generous with their donations, and the other volunteers are thoughtful to spend their time like this every weekend. I feel more connected to my community and the people who work hard to bring me food, and donate food to people who need it. If you want to be inspired too, sign up! Your help is needed and makes a difference.
FOOD FORWARD
