My first night closing the bakery, Andy looked up from bagging the bread and said, “You know, usually we don’t have this much left over. We can’t sell the loaves of double day old bread, so I guess we should just compost them.”

“I know a place we can take them,” I said. “If I bring it to the distribution center of the non-profit I work with, they will deliver it to elementary schools in low-income communities. The families of students can take it home for meals.” So he helped me wrap 40 pounds of bread and bagels. At the end of my shift, I brought it to Urban Gleaners.

I have been working with Urban Gleaners for two months now, helping to get new food donors and making short films about the organization and the work that we do. I came to Urban Gleaners with a background in filmmaking, food justice, and an interest in the local food movement.

When I moved out to Portland to go to Reed College, I was surprised by the variety of produce I saw at the farmers’ markets around the city. Growing up in Jacksonville, Florida I had never known winter squash outside of Thanksgiving decorations, had never seen purple or orange cauliflower, and blackberries had always been so expensive that it was a rare treat to buy enough to bake a pie. I couldn’t believe how excited Portlanders were about shopping there. It was like the Southern equivalent of standing in line at the grocery store to buy chips and beer before a college football game.

So I got involved in the Real Food Challenge, a movement to promote food that is local/community based, ecologically sound, just and humane in college cafeterias around the country. I helped to negotiate with our food service provider, Bon Appétit, to source more local food in the campus cafeteria and feature produce from local farms in their dishes.

The following summer I worked on an organic teaching farm in India called Navdanya. I learned how to clean seeds, thresh wheat and sow rice. I also designed a small-scale collaborative film project, which asked the subjects of the film to actively share the decision making process about what to film and how to film it.

Each farmer spoke differently about the difficulties they face—the declining water table, land rights issues, the promotion of patented seeds by American companies, the importance of seed sharing as a way to keep seeds as public knowledge, a critically important alternative to corporate seeds, both to maintain biodiversity and the viability of farmer’s livelihoods.

After my experiences in India and my time at Reed College, I wanted to learn more about how to address the root-causes of poverty and social exclusion outside of academia and began looking outside of anthropology for a more powerful tool for systemic change. Then I found Urban Gleaners. The work that Urban Gleaners does to redistribute food helps to balance the unevenness of excess and need in Portland. While our work does not address the root causes of why people are hungry and struggling with food insecurity every day, it brings them food when they are in need. And I believe that is equally important.

Now, three years later, I am working with Bon Appétit to encourage them to donate their surplus from catered events at the college to Urban Gleaners. Most recently in my search for new donors I have been struggling with the scarcity of food in the late winter and early spring. February was a difficult month. More schools reach out to us, hoping that we can help to alleviate hunger of the kids in need through donating food they can bring home for the weekend or for dinner.

Urban Gleaners runs a Free Farmer’s Market in the summer with a bountiful harvest donated by local farmers at the end of their market day. Right now, however, we are still looking for more food. If you know of anyone that might be interested in donating, please let us know!

Thousands look forward to Opening Day of the Portland Farmers Market at PSU. For Urban Gleaners, it means a new season of donations of delicious, fresh, organic produce that we deliver directly from the markets to the families in our Food to Schools Program.

It’s no secret that Oregon ranks high on the list of hungriest states in America. Last year, the Oregon Food Bank distributed more than one million emergency food boxes. 33% of those receiving emergency food were children. In 2010, Urban Gleaners became aware of issues of hunger in Portland’s East Multnomah County School District, where between 70-90% of children live below the poverty line and rely on free or subsidized school breakfasts and lunches for what is often their only meal of the day. “Some of these children come from homes where there is nothing in the cupboard,” says Kate Barker, Principal of Cherry Park Elementary School.

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“Though Portland has been lauded as an epicurean mecca for local and seasonal produce, the truth is that Oregon ranks among the five hungriest states in the nation. To combat this, Urban Gleaners is trying to restore some balance to a food system that leaves some Americans bloated, and others starving.”

To read more, click here.