Sept. 21-25 marked the first Vermont Week of Gleaning, a statewide celebration of the people, farms and food access organizations that have long worked to recover surplus food. The Vermont Gleaning Collective, with member organizations around the state, hosted the week.
Willing Hands, a Norwich-based nonprofit that gleans and recovers fresh food from farms and businesses across the Upper Valley, took part in the week, hosting community gleans at farms in the region. As the Upper Valley continues to face food insecurity, Willing Hands is using gleaning to help meet the community’s needs.
What is gleaning?
Gleaning is a long-standing food recovery practice in which produce left over after a farm’s harvest is picked so it doesn’t go to waste. According to ReFED, a national nonprofit that tracks food waste, Vermont farms generated about 6,820 tons of produce waste in 2024, and 89.5% of it was food left unharvested.
To minimize this waste, Willing Hands partners with farms and orchards throughout the Upper Valley to host regular gleaning sessions, where volunteers collect a range of produce, including berries, apples and carrots.
“Our volunteers are really special and dedicated, with some coming to the same gleans week after week,” said Shara Buffington, Willing Hands’ gleaning coordinator.
Willing Hands had 794 volunteers in 2025, according to the organization. Deb Martin, 73, of Norwich, said the online volunteer system lets volunteers pick from a range of gleaning sessions offered each week.
“It’s a good way to spend my time. I can sign up for the two times a week that I’m free, and I’m not making myself crazy because I’ve got too much going on,” Martin said.
Volunteers are drawn to the gleaning sessions for a variety of reasons, from connecting with others in the community to working with their hands outdoors. For Kathy Waste, 75, of Lyme, it’s about getting unused produce to people facing food insecurity.
“I don’t like to see good food go to waste. I want to see it go to hungry people,” Waste said.
The operations of Willing Hands
For Willing Hands, gleaning is just one part of a larger food recovery operation. The organization sources surplus fresh produce, dairy, eggs, meat and bread in two ways: through volunteer gleaning and through donations from grocery stores, bakeries, local farms and wholesalers. It also grows food in four volunteer-led gardens. In 2025, Willing Hands partnered with 93 food donors.
After collecting the food, Willing Hands provides it for free to more than 85 social service organizations in the Upper Valley. It is delivered weekly, year-round, to food shelves, transitional and low-income housing, child, senior and veterans centers, and nonprofits working on food equity.
The organization’s mission has two parts: reducing food waste and addressing food insecurity. In 2025, Willing Hands recovered more than 1 million pounds of food and redistributed it to communities in need, according to the organization.
Addressing a gap in the market
While food banks traditionally provide nonperishable goods, Willing Hands specializes in perishable food. To handle the quick turnaround necessitated by large volumes of perishable food, the nonprofit operates refrigerated vehicles and storage.
Perishable foods such as vegetables, dairy and meat tend to be more expensive, which can price people out of nutritious food.
“We are trying to fill that gap and allow folks to have a whole diet,” said Gabe Zoerheide, executive director of Willing Hands. “It’s really critical in supporting both people’s dignity and health.”
Increasing challenges, increasing demand
In the Upper Valley, the rising cost of living has made food access an ongoing challenge, Zoerheide said.
“During the pandemic there were a number of federal programs that offered food support. However, afterwards, all that support went away. At the same time there was a rise in the cost of housing, cost of food, and cost of gas,” he said.
“The overall U.S. inflation rates do not tell the full story. The cost of living has increased dramatically,” Zoerheide said. “Folks who normally wouldn’t think of themselves in need of a charitable food system are now finding that they are a part of this.”
Changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps people with low income buy food, have added to the challenge. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump in July 2025, narrowed eligibility. It expanded work requirements and barred most legal immigrants from benefits.
SNAP enrollment in New Hampshire fell about 3% from June 2025 to June 2026, according to state Department of Health and Human Services data. In Vermont, it fell about 7%, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Food providers have reported rising demand as the changes take effect, the Valley News has reported.
Willing Hands is working to meet the community’s increasing needs. Between 2024 and 2025, the organization increased the amount of food it recovers by more than 5%, according to the organization.
Winter brings higher fuel and heating costs, so Willing Hands is working to keep its food supply consistent. The organization hopes to add partnerships with year-round wholesalers and food donors, such as egg producers and greenhouses.
“There are very few programs that support fuel for driving to work,” Zoerheide said. “Food is a more flexible part of the household budget.”
Because of that, food donations can offer essential aid, he said.
Willing Hands’ work to reduce food waste and expand food equity depends on a range of community partners, from volunteers offering their time to farms providing their land to organizations offering financial support.
Zoerheide said Willing Hands is “really a product of people who care.”