Gleaners give what could go to waste

Clackamas County Gleaners distribute food and offer a resource center

By Ellen Spitaleri

The Clackamas Review, Feb 26, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (6 Reader comments)

Terri O’Donoghue stocks the shelves with cereal in the Gleaners grocery store. Members are allowed to shop for provisions at reduced prices.

Ellen Spitaleri / Clackamas Review

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For Terri O’Donoghue, sustainability means the elimination of waste, and that’s what she and other volunteers at the Gleaners of Clackamas County are trying to do.

“We’re trying to eliminate waste and take the sin of throwing perfectly good food away. We take that food and feed people with it. We don’t need to feed landfills — we need to feed kids,” she said.

O’Donoghue is the public relations director of the Gleaners, and has worked with the organization for 20 years.

Volunteer organization

The Gleaners of Clackamas County is a non-profit, self-help organization, serving low income, elderly and disabled residents of the county; the workers are all volunteers and their overall goal is to eliminate hunger in the county.

“Food prices are sky high and some working families don’t qualify for food stamps, and even if they do qualify, some can’t make it. So we supplement the basic needs of families,” O’Donoghue said.

She said that people who qualify fill out an application and are given a team in the area where they live. Members then pay $20 per month and those proceeds go into a fund to “keep the doors open and the trucks running.”

“All members can shop in our store and buy food at a lower cost. We purchase that food — whatever is donated, we can’t sell,” said Bunne Mooney, president of the Gleaners.

Instead, donated food is put to immediate use for lunches for workers and drop-ins.

Members also have access to a resource center where they are not charged for household items, personal care products and clothing, O’Donoghue said.

Donations from merchants, restaurants

Members can pick up food two to three times a week, and more than 30 teams go to local stores daily to get bread and dairy products to distribute to their teams.

“It helps merchants who are trying to get rid of bread — we go every day, so this cuts waste. Any leftovers are given to pig or goat farmers — we take off the plastic to make sure the food is safe for animals,” O’Donoghue noted.

Commercial food preparers who have been hesitant to donate food should be aware that they are “protected from any liabilities by the Emerson Act,” O’Donoghue said, because they would be “giving in good faith.”

Merchants can call the Gleaners and volunteers will pick up food items, or supplies may be brought directly to the site in Oregon City.

Individuals who wish to help the Gleaners may organize canned food drives and bring in pet products, toys and household goods; hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Mooney noted that students from area schools may earn community service hours by volunteering with the organization, and the county brings in community service work crews to assist with clean up and food distribution.

Members “adopt”

One aspect of the Gleaners program that is unique is the requirement that each member must “adopt” a senior or disabled person and share food with them.

“Our members have a relationship with these seniors — some of them their kids never come see them, and their only contact is with a gleaner. We work as social services and check in with these seniors two to three times a week,” O’Donoghue said.

“Every gleaner family has to have an adoptee and the adoptee does not have to pay,” Mooney added.

Both women noted that this aspect of the program is a way for the gleaners “to give back” to the community.

Donna Svatos, the vice president of the Gleaners, said she has been a member of the group for five years, and said “there is no better program in Clackamas County.”

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