In a 2016 report by the state of the food system in the San Diego region, it is estimated that in San Diego County, more than 50,000 tons of food is wasted each year, while one out of every seven residents faces food insecurity.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a 15 percent unemployment rate, food banks across the county are struggling to meet the increase of people needing food assistance. Unemployment is a key force driving food bank demand with 34 percent of the households having no wage earners, according to the San Diego Food Bank.
I Love to GLEAN is working to help solve this disparity by involving residents in gleaning their fresh fruit and produce from their own backyards for donations to local food distribution agencies.
I Love to Glean is a non-profit agency founded by Karen Clay, who saw an opportunity to create more capacity for South County feeding agencies and kitchens to be able to store food and take in more donations locally.
This is a business that Clay said she had already been working on, but she fast tracked the non-profit when the stay-at- home orders went into place in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In her years of working with food recovery systems in San Diego County and the San Diego Food System Alliance, she said she knew there was a great need for a food bank type of situation in South County with the nearest major food banks being located more than 20 miles away. “If there ever was an earthquake, that might be a real problem,” she said.
Clay said Glean operates residential backyard gleaning where small teams go to people’s backyards, pick the fruit then take it to a food distribution agency. Residents who participate receive a donation receipt.
“A Glean Up is a community event where community residents pick their own fruit and if they can deliver it to the location they do; if they cannot we will pick it up curbside and take it to agencies that can use it,” said Clay. “This was done in Ocean-side. It was very successful, and the community really liked getting active and volunteering their own time by picking and donating their own food.”
Clay said the non-profit paperwork is completed and I Love to Glean is good to go with its fiscal sponsor Revé Church, but she is looking for another fiscal sponsor in an organization that is more involved with food.
“We are in a one- to two-week timeframe of signing a lease on a 4,800-square-foot building in Chula Vista that will act as our temporary warehouse until we can get a larger facility,” said Clay. “We are going to need warehouse equipment, a forklift and pallet racking. There are all types of equipment needs as well as volunteer needs. We are always going to need monetary donations as well.”
The first Glean Up in Chula Vista is scheduled for Saturday, June 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Clay said this is a safe way for residents of Chula Vista to help by donating their backyard produce.
The drop off location is at the South Bay Pentecostal Church at 395 D St., Chula Vista.
