Vegetables at food pantries

On a recent Friday I spent a couple of hours packing plastic bags full of canned goods for a food pantry in Chelsea. Two cans of beans, a can of tuna, two cans of soup, a can of carrots and one of peas, and a can of fruit, along with various starches like brown rice and macaroni. The peaches were marked "product of China."

I wasn't there for the next day's guests, who would also have access to fresh vegetables stacked high in cardboard boxes. The boxes included corn, lettuce, and bananas, among other fragile things. The storage room was slightly air conditioned, and the vegetables were described as an experiment. Indeed, I wondered how they would last the next 24 hours-- the corn husks were beginning to turn pale and dry.

But if were offered a choice between fruit in a can that's a product of China, and fresh fruit or vegetables, I would almost certainly take the fresh part. This is the attitude of groups like Boston Area Gleaners (headed by Oakes Plimpton, former manager of the Arlington MA farmers market). When I think of gleaning, I think of Ruth and her mother-in-law in the Old Testament, gathering grain. Oakes and others, today, do much the same, but with any left over fruit or vegetable, which they then distribute to pantries like the one in Chelsea.

It's a complicated process--much more so than filling plastic bags with cans. The gleaners have my thanks and admiration.