Glean And Give

Local Girl Scout troops were invited to the 1st Annual Carrot Glean at Boxx Berry Farms today.   Four of my Scouts attended, along with moms, dads, and brothers. 

Gleaning refers to "the age-old practice of collecting crops that, while still in good condition, remain in the field following a farmer’s commercial harvest.  Some farmers tend to donate excess crops in their fields that would otherwise go unharvested."   And that's exactly what Boxx Berry does.  The Whatcom County Food Banks receive approximately 1/3 of their fresh produce from Boxx Berry!  Yet another reason to love Boxx.

The Carrot Glean was an effort to make a huge difference in our community and we were issued a challenge - how many pounds of carrots could we harvest in one hour?

It was especially fun to have family members attend.

There were some wacky-shaped carrots.

Kids, digging in dirt.  Doesn't get much better than that.

Girl Scouts rock!

The dads pitched right in and loaded the full bins into the large container.

What an awesome day to see so many Scouts and families harvesting carrots for our community.   And the grand total?  2,500 lbs of carrots!  Wow!   These carrots will be distributed throughout the county and the surplus will be sent south to food banks in the Seattle area.  The food bank representative who directed today's activities was so appreciative and completely amazed at the amount of work we accomplished.   That's girl power for ya!

So glad we were a part of this!

I'm looking forward to the opportunity to glean again next year.

UPDATE - We actually picked way more than 2,500 lbs of carrots!  That was the estimate before it was weighed.  Just received an email from the food bank representative:

"All in all, 3,400 lbs of carrots came out of the ground in a half-hour, and these will be shared among food banks throughout Whatcom County.  Now I know that if I need something done and done well, I can call the Scouts.  Thank you so much for your help, and I look forward to doing this again next year."