One of my most vivid memories upon arriving in SLO was the beautiful, incredibly fruitful orange tree that stood on the side of my little home. Being from Maine, I couldn’t get over the amazing taste of the oranges and their abundance! Every meal for months involved some of those oranges, or lemons from my neighbor or persimmons from my landlord… what bounty! I remember taking walks around the neighborhood and being shocked by how much fruit was right in our backyards and yet often falling to the ground in waste. I met Carolyn Eicher through SLO Grown Kids and began to feel the momentum growing in my relatively new community around the idea of gleaning and what this could look like for SLO. Many meetings were held, ideas were thrown around, research was done, little gleans were experimented with… and then GleanSLO was birthed. What a gift to have been witness to that process.
With the help and encouragement of many in the community, I applied for an Americorps position in 2011 with my time split between GleanSLO and the Food Bank. I have so many fond memories of those days and driving the Food Bank truck along HWY 1 to gleans throughout the county. From the farmers I met who opened their fields, to the dedicated volunteers who came glean after glean, the people and heart behind GleanSLO never ceased to amaze me.
When I was back visiting SLO this fall, I was lucky enough to attend a strawberry glean and see how much GleanSLO has grown and yet has been able to maintain its community-centered mission and mentality. I have no doubt that GleanSLO will be a fixture in SLO for years to come bringing the community together in more ways than can be counted.