Overview of the Gleaning Program
The Gleaning Program in Nanaimo is a partnership between Nanaimo Foodshare Society and Nanaimo Community Gardens Society. Established in 2003, The goal of the Gleaning Program is to help reduce food waste in Nanaimo and area. Volunteer gleaners pick fruit and vegetables from backyards and gardens that would otherwise be wasted. Please read below for information on the 2025 Gleaning Program. If you have further questions please call the coordinator at 250-816-4769 or email gleaning@ncgs.ca
Surplus fruit to share? Don’t let it go to waste!
Share your produce!
If you have (or anticipate having) more fruits, nuts or vegetables than you can use, please call the Gleaning Program. We will do our best to link you with insured volunteers willing to pick. Advance notice of one to two weeks is requested to allow time to coordinate the picks.
Do you want to help? If you are a local farmer who wishes to have gleaners harvest surplus vegetables or other crops, please contact the Gleaning Program for more information about how we can support you by providing an income tax receipt and leaving some of the produce with you to sell. We have provided insured and vetted gleaners for peas, blueberries, raspberries and corn.
Contact the Gleaning Program at 250-816-4769 to register your crop.
Become a gleaner!
Volunteer gleaners must be willing to attend a one-hour orientation and safety session, and pay a $25 membership fee. Once registered, gleaners will be invited on organized picks throughout the season. Please note that most communication is done through email so you will need to have a valid email address that you check frequently.
Orientations are about one hour in length and include a ladder demonstration. We will meet in the gazebo at the Pine Street Community Garden located behind the Foodshare Centre at 271 Pine St. Children are welcome to play in the garden while you attend. Dogs must be leashed. All gleaners must have a safety orientation. The earlier you sign up, the better your chances of attending an early pick, such as a cherry pick.
To listen to a CBC interview held August 31, 2023 that explains the gleaning program in more detail, use this link
What happens to the produce?
The main purpose of the program is to reduce food waste, not provide charitable donations of food to emergency food providers. This means that pickers choose how to distribute the food based on factors such as the amount and condition of the fruit, how ripe or tasty it is, the type of fruit and its keeping qualities and what type of produce is abundant at the time of picking. We do not mandate a distribution model where a certain percentage is donated to food banks, although a lot of produce does go there.
Owners can claim up to a third of the produce picked, although most years they only want 5 to 15% of the total amount of produce harvested. Volunteer pickers take some for themselves and are encouraged to take more to distribute among their networks, local organizations they work with, schools they frequent, housing complexes in their neighbourhood, those in need that they know and any other places to ensure that fresh produce can be used quickly in the community. Any that is surplus to what they can immediately distribute, is left at the Harvest Exchange Area where it is taken and used by programs and individuals daily during the gleaning season. In case of large surpluses, other volunteers are called in to bring produce to different organizations that can redistribute to others in need. The Gleaning Program has found that this model of pickers giving away smaller amounts of produce to those who can deal with it in a timely fashion has resulted in less food waste than the previous practice of giving away large amounts of produce to a few organizations who had to deal with storage of potentially fragile, overripe or damaged produce. We want the food to be used and picked at its best instead of underripe as is often the case when commercial pickers have cases of produce that can be stored for longer periods of time. Fresher, riper fruit does not store as long and varieties that are used in home gardens often lack the keeping qualities of commercial fruits.
An exception to picking fruit at its peak is when we are referred a tree through Conservation officers or Wild Safe BC
This program is in partnership with the City of Nanaimo and helps to educate community members about managing attractants to black bears, including fruit trees. If called, we send out volunteer gleaners urgently to remove fruit, including unripe fruit from trees to reduce the possibility of human-bear encounters.
Gleaning 2025
New Gleaners:
If you haven’t been a gleaner for this program before you will need to attend a mandatory safety orientation. The orientations will be held outdoors in the open-air gazebo in the Pine Street Community Garden, behind the Foodshare Centre parking lot at 271 Pine St. Please attend one of the orientation dates below to join the program. You do not have to pre-register for a session – just show up! Remember to invite any friends or family that want to glean with you. ad non-registered gleaners are not permitted on picks. Latecomers are disruptive and may miss important information about the program so please be on time. If you cannot be on time, please attend a different session. There will be time to answer all your questions about the program. The orientation session lasts about an hour so dress appropriately to be outdoors for that length of time. You will need to fill out a membership form and submit payment. The membership fee is $25 and payment can be made with cash, cheque or by credit card (no debit).
The dates for 2025 orientations are:
Saturday May 10, 11am-noonTuesday May 20, 5-6pmSaturday June 7, 11am-noonWednesday June 11, 5-6pmSunday June 22 3pm
Once 2025 scheduled orientations have already been held, there it is unlikely that there will be further opportunities for becoming a gleaner for this year. Please ask to be added to the 2026 Gleaning mailing list by contacting Lee Sanmiya, Gleaning Coordinator at gleaning@ncgs.ca
The Gleaning Program 2025 is a joint project of:
Nanaimo Foodshare Society
Nanaimo Community Gardens Society
We acknowledge the financial assistance of the Province on British Columbia. This program is also made possible through the work of many dedicated volunteers, tree owners and farmers.
Thank you!
