The Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative

The Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative is a coalition of local workers and volunteers from Community Gardens and Farms, Gleaners, Processors, Storage Facilities, Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens working together to help make the connections that will feed more people in our communities. Led by Family of Woodstock, the Rondout Valley Growers Association, UlsterCorps and the Bruderhof Community, the program addresses food insecurity by engaging local farmers to donate locally grown produce and training volunteers to glean, process and distribute nutritious food to the network food pantries, feeding programs and shelters in Ulster and surrounding counties. Farmers are generously offering to donate fresh produce but need help getting it to those in need. UlsterCorps is responsible for building a corps of volunteers, our Glean Team, to assist in growing, gleaning, processing and transporting food from local farms to local food pantries and soup kitchens.

The collaborative increases the nutritious food available to local food pantries throughout the County; expands the availability of nutritious meals for children during the summer; increases the capacity for storage and distribution, both centrally and for individual pantries; decreases the amount of food discarded or wasted; develops new relationships which make additional food available; distributes food through the Feeding America program; informs the community of the availability of food resources by maintaining a current map of food pantries throughout the county in English and Spanish; and improves communication and coordination between countywide and local providers.

The collaborative has been working to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, food insecurity in Ulster County. Starting in 2009, the group has gleaned, collected and distributed over 1,313,068 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables to soup kitchens and food pantries in the county. In 2023, the collaborative collected over 127,896 lbs lbs. of produce from 23 donors and distributed it to 53 food pantries, shelters, and community meal programs in Ulster and surrounding counties.

A central component of the program is the recruiting, training and coordinating of volunteers. During the 2022 growing season, 269 volunteers contributed a total of 944 hours gleaning, distributing, and processing fresh produce. The remarkable generosity of our local farmers and the strong support we have received from volunteers is helping us to address food insecurity in our community.

In 2015, the collaborative started an initiative to create five food hubs, which each include expanded freezer and cooler capacity to improve food storage and significantly decrease waste. The hubs are blocated in key locations throughout the county, each supporting four to five food pantries from their surrounding communities. These hubs not only decrease waste and improve food quality, but significantly lower transportation costs and thereby operating costs for the local pantries. As of 2019, hubs are now operational in Kingston, Ellenville, Rosendale, New Paltz and Woodstock.

Join our Glean Team and be a part of this fun and rewarding project!
Email glean@ulstercorps.org to sign up.

Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative seeks volunteers for Blueberry Gleaning

When: Twice weekly beginning June 26th, 2023, 8:30-11am
Where: Hudson Valley Farm Hub Farm Stand
2324 US-209, Hurley, NY

The Ulster County Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative, led by FAMILY of Woodstock and the Rondout Valley Growers Association, with volunteer support from UlsterCorps, is seeking volunteers to assist with blueberry gleaning at the Hudson Valley Farm Hub Farm Stand, 2324 US-209, Hurley, NY, Mondays and Wednesdays beginning Monday June 26th (weather permitting), from 8:30-11am until the end of blueberry season in early August.

We’ll be harvesting delicious fresh blueberries donated by the Hudson Valley Farm Hub for local food pantries, shelters and community meal programs.

Volunteers of all ages are welcome (youth volunteers must be supervised by a parent/guardian). Pantry friends are welcome to come glean for their program. Containers will be provided. On-farm training protocol provided upon arrival. Please wear sturdy shoes, sunscreen and long pants. Please visit ulstercorps.org to register/learn more, or call/text 845-481-0331 or email glean@ulstercorps.org.

Note: If the weather is questionable, be sure to check in with us before 8am the morning you are planning to glean (there is no cell service at the Farm Stand). We ask everyone to please register before coming.

View photos from past gleanings on Facebook!

Additional opportunities:

– People’s Place Food Pantry and Thrift Store, located at 17 St. James St. in Midtown Kingston, is in need of additional volunteers to assist with its Food Bank Farm Stand every Tuesday morning throughout the growing season, as well as its “Bag Summer Hunger” program. The “Bag Summer Hunger” program provides additional breakfast, lunch and snack foods for families with school-age children in Ulster County during summer months. Volunteers are also needed to help out in the food pantry weekdays from 10am-1pm, especially on Fridays, and with unloading Food Bank deliveries the first Tuesday of every month from 8-10am, and at the new People’s Cafe. For more information, call (845) 338-4030 or email office@peoplesplaceuc.org.

Family of Ellenville seeks volunteers to assist with food pickups. Do you have a pickup truck or van, are you able to make a weekly commitment to Family, and the ability to lift boxes of food? If so, we could use your help picking up food donations in Ellenville, delivering them to Family of Ellenville sorting and stocking them in our food pantry. If you can help please call Dominic @845-647-2443 or email foeh@fowinc.org

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Keep in Touch!
Want to be notified about upcoming gleanings
and other opportunities to help end hunger in our community?
– Sign up for Hunger in the Hudson Valley – Action Alerts
email notifications & calls for volunteer assistance getting food from local farms to people in need.

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Related Initiatives & volunteer opportunities

Plant a Row for the Hungry
This program asks vegetable gardeners to devote an extra row in their gardens, or bring their excess produce to Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County (CCEUC), located at 232 Plaza Road, in Kingston, Family of New Paltz or People’s Place. More info: 340-3478. (DIRT).

Support local farms – join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or shop at local farmers markets. If you are a member of a CSA, offer to transport leftover produce to your local food pantry or soup kitchen. If you have the resources, consider donating a partial share in a CSA to a family in need.

If you have a commercial kitchen, organize/donate a day to help process food so that it can be distributed year-round.

Volunteer at a local food pantry or soup kitchen – help them extend their hours, transport more fresh food, prepare additional meals. All need more volunteers to keep up with significantly increased demand.

Become a Volunteer Master Gardener!
Master Gardeners are trained volunteers who provide the public with gardening programs and activities that convey horticulture research and experience. Volunteers are selected and trained in all aspects of horticulture from taxonomy and plant pathology to organic gardening. Each Master Gardener must complete an initial 100 hours of research based instruction from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Ulster County and will continue to be exposed to the latest developments through a variety of educational training methods and state of the art gardening techniques. Interviews will take place in July and August. Training will begin in September at the CCEUC Education Center in Kingston. Contact Dona at 340-3990.

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So much gratitude to all of our Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative Donating Growers:

4 Winds Farm
Alewife Farm
Anderson Acres Farm
Applestone
ARC Community Garden
Barthels Farm
Black Creek Farm
Bruderhof Communities
Davenport Farms
Fino Farms
Greiner Brother Orchards
Hepworth Farms
Hudson Valley Farm Hub
Hudson Valley Seed Co.
Hurds Family Farm
Huguenot Street Farm
Lawrence Orchards
Liberty View Farm
Locust Grove Farm
Long Season Farm
Maynards Orchard
McMahon Farm
Mercier Farms
Migliorelle Farm
Mohonk Mountain House
Morningstar Farm
Muddy Farm
Nick DePalma
Old Ford Farm
Phillies Bridge Farm
Poughkeepsie Farm Project
Prospect Hill Orchards
Robert O. Davenport & Sons
Row by Row Farm
Saunderskill Farm
Second Wind CSA
Seed Song Farm
Sfoglini Pasta
Sky High Farm
Son Of A Bee Farm
Sparrowbush Farm
Three Sisters Farm
Tongore Brook Farm
Tripani Farms
Upstate Farms
Whistle Down Farm