More McHenry County Blog

Bradford challenged attendees to pledge $25 twice a year. He said that $50 would provide 5000 servings of food for a penny apiece.

Gleaning is one of the primary activities of Meals for Millions.

A Biblical term, gleaning involves collecting the food in a field after the harvest has been completed.

“In Georgia hail dented pears,” he explained. “Every one of those pears went to waste. We’re picky consumers. We don’t buy dented pears.

“How many of us would buy a tomato with a black spot?” he added, pointing out that, if we had grown the tomato in our gardens, we would just cut out the black spot.

Potatoes are not harvested if they are too big or two small. Royston’s volunteers glean such potatoes in northwestern Illinois.

“I’ve personally seen people lined up for blocks to get a ten pound bag of potatoes,” Bradford revealed.

One million pounds of food were picked up in northern Illinois. Nationwide, seventeen million were gleaned.

“That’s barely scratching the surface,” Bradford said.

Locally, an October Boy Scout Eagle project headed by Matt Klockenga organized gleaners of apples at Royal Oak Farm Orchard between Harvard and Hebron. About 100 gleaners collected 5-6,000 pounds of apples for food panties in Crystal Lake and Villa Park.

“I want you to know that we can end hunger in the United States,” Bradford said.

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