(Facebook/Rosthern Good Neighbours Food Centre)

By Jaryn Vecchio

Food Support

Sask. Food Bank practicing gleaning, additional methods to help better serve clients

Jul 28, 2023 | 3:51 PM

More and more food banks across the country are taking up the practice of gleaning, but there’s one in Saskatchewan that’s taking it a step further.

Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers’ fields after they have been commercially harvested.

This is something the Rosthern Good Neighbours Food Centre has been doing for years mainly due to the generosity of local areas farmers.

Betty Rudachyk, the executive director of the Food Centre, told farmnewsNOW this method is environmentally sound and helps reduce food waste, but it’s also extra food that they can provide to their clients.

“We’ve had a dramatic increase in working families who have to come and get some food supplements from us because they cannot make ends meet,” she said.

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Right now, the Food Centre is helping around 1,200 people a month. Roughly half of these people are children.

Rudachyk didn’t have an exact number but noted there’s definitely been an increase in demand for their service.

That’s where their unique methods start to come in handy.

Recently, the Food Centre was given a large donation of tomatoes from the Osler area. It was so large that some would most likely have gone bad if staff and volunteers just handed them out through individual hampers.

“We make tomato sauce, we’re freezing the tomatoes, we’re roasting tomatoes and then blending them so we can give them out in little freezer bags, and (we’re making) fresh salsa,” said Rudachyk.

She added they’ve also started drying herbs to give to clients so they can freeze them and use them later rather than sooner.

“We’re always looking to increase our opportunities for processing fresh produce here.”

Despite being with the Food Centre for less than a year, Rudachyk explained she’s already seen the positive impact these methods have had. This includes during the winter when getting fresh produce is much harder than during the warmer months when farming is ongoing.

“We’re looking at ways that can be used by our clientele in healthy nutritious ways over the course of the winter months,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Food Centre is able to do this because it has its own commercial kitchen.

Rudachyk knows that not every Food Bank or Centre is as fortunate as them when it comes to this, however, she believes they should look into gleaning and other methods to extend their food’s life if they’re not doing so already.

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Jaryn.Vecchio@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @princealbertnow