[Scpg] thanksgiving: gleaners feed hungry

[seedmind at usa.net]

The biggest american holiday in november is AFTER election day, thanksgiving,
inspired by survival awareness shared with europeans by native americans that
allowed weakening newcomers to stay alive. 

no matter how you vote, there are always opportunities to provide care in our
communities and express appreciation for our blessings. don't expect the media
and politicians to do the heavy lifting of daily acts of compassion, the piece
of the puzzle we each bring to our world.

the article below describes some people, guided by spirit, who are doing
something real... and i bet plenty of fun, too.

i'll be "thankful" to hear from you if it's been awhile.
enjoy-
akiva

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Volunteers Hunt Produce to Feed Hungry 

Mon Oct 25, 7:29 AM  

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&ncid=541&e=8&u=/ap/20041025/ap_on_he_me/fit_yam_jam

By BOBBY ROSS JR., Associated Press Writer 

GOLDEN, Texas - Volunteers fanned across Texas farm fields to pick up sweet
potatoes missed by mechanical harvesters, joining a national network to feed
the poor with produce that might otherwise go to waste, from California
oranges to Indiana beans and Florida squash. 

In this rural community about 75 miles east of Dallas, the weekend effort is
called the Texas Yam Jam. 

"It's rewarding, it's a good gig, just to come out here and glean for the
people who might not be able to eat if we hadn't actually done this," said Jay
Wilbur, 43, from Panola, near the Louisiana state line. 

The work is overseen by the Big Island, Va.-based Society of St. Andrew, an
ecumenical organization with strong United Methodist ties. The ministry, in
its 25th year, is named after the disciple who figured in the New Testament
story of how Jesus Christ fed 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes. 

The society estimates that over the past quarter-century, 250,000 volunteers
have gleaned 461.5 million pounds of food that would have been dumped, plowed
under or left to rot — but instead became 1.4 billion servings of food
donated to the hungry. 

"In the Old Testament, it talks about leaving the corners of your field for
the ailing and the poor. We've just kind of taken that ancient biblical
practice and modernized it," said Carol Breitinger, the society's spokeswoman.


This month, for example, Boy Scouts and other volunteers collected green beans
from a northern Indiana field that a cannery had rejected because of frost. In
Lake Park, Fla., along the Florida-Georgia line, a church group picked up
bushels of leftover cucumbers and squash. 

"Our food banks are screaming for fresh produce and this is actually about the
least expensive way we can get fresh produce," said Randy Groce, 54, president
of the Texas advisory board for the Society of St. Andrew. 

Groce brought 900 orange mesh bags — each able to fit 50 pounds of sweet
potatoes. Volunteers stuffed them with tens of thousands of roots as small as
a thumb and as large as a submarine sandwich. 

"Mom, what does a sweet potato look like?" inquired Eliza Allen, a 5-year-old
in pigtails whose older sister, Jade, 8, skipped a soccer game for the Yam
Jam. 

"It's like a big potato that's orange," replied her mother, Andrea Allen, 35,
a member of the First United Methodist Church of Celina. 

Wilbur, a video game company executive, welcomes the annual effort. "I'm
either on a plane or riding a desk," he joked. "It's good to get your hands
dirty." 

more on web at:  http://www.endhunger.org/index1.htm