At our October volunteer forum, food historian Dr. Shayne Figueroa held a special presentation on the history of gleaning for our team. Her work explores the deep-rooted cultural and communal traditions of rescuing edible food from waste to feed those who need it most, and how this rich history of gleaning underpins grassroots recovery efforts today. We want to express gratitude to Dr. Shayne Figueroa for giving her time to educate our ProduceGood community, and to Joni Gang, who made this event possible through her kind donation.
If you are interested in Dr. Shayne Figueroa’s presentation, The History of Gleaning, we have included her slide deck and recording of the presentation:
Following the presentation, we held our final volunteer forum of the year, where volunteers and staff members split into small groups to discuss strengths and future improvements across three programs: Grocery Gleaning, Cropswap (backyard picks), and Farmers Markets. Our volunteer forums serve as a space for open dialogue between members of our ProduceGood community. This level of collaboration is what allows us to consider and meet the needs of our volunteers and identify actionable items geared towards broadening our community impact.
Huge thank you to all the amazing volunteers who showed up! We deeply appreciate your commitment to improving our programs. Join us at our next volunteer forum on February 16th, 2027. 🍊
