Is Gleaning Right for You?

Looking for ways to trim your costs gets difficult after a certain point: once you’ve cut out the extras like fancy television channels and deluxe cell phone plans, you may think you’ve gone as far as you can go without freezing or starving.

If you’re buried under debt or rebuilding your finances following a bankruptcy, But you may have an alternative to dropping considerable sums at the grocery checkout each week. Enter gleaning.

What is Gleaning?

If you’ve read the biblical book of Ruth, you may have heard of gleaning. In ancient times, it involved following harvesters in the field and picking up any produce that fell to the ground. By gleaning fields, many poor people were able to eat.

Today, though, gleaning works a little differently. Modern gleaning works more like this:

• You find a gleaning group: A little online research should help you figure out whether a gleaning group already exists in your area. If not, you may be able to print a notice in a local paper or online to see if anyone is interested in starting one.
• You pay a slight fee: Some groups may have a nominal fee (the writer mentioned above pays $30 per year) to help the group with costs associated with gleaning.
• You pitch in: Every day, one member of the group is responsible for visiting the grocers and bakers that agreed to participate in the gleaning. The group member picks up (for free) any food that can no longer be sold because of freshness requirements but is still perfectly edible.
• You divvy up: Once the food is collected, the members of the cooperative each take a share. In this way, everyone gets some food every day.

The Positives

The positives here are pretty obvious:

• You get free food.
• You prevent food from going to waste.
• You get to know members of your community.
• You get a chance to try things you may never have bought.

The Negatives

But gleaning isn’t right for everyone. Consider the drawbacks:

• You can’t choose what you get, so if you have people in your household with allergies or restrictive diets, it may not work.
• You may get lots of perishables, like fruits and vegetables. This isn’t a problem if you can, preserve or can share with neighbors, but could otherwise lead to waste.
• You need to commit some time. The writer noted above estimates that the endeavor consumes about three to five hours of time every week.

Done right, gleaning can be one opportunity for you to cut back on costs and make some spare room in your budget. Have you tried gleaning? What are your thoughts on the process? Leave a comment below and let me know!

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