With the Covid-19 pandemic upending so many social services, we checked in with ninety-nine girlfriends’ 2017 grantee partner Urban Gleaners to see how the agency is weathering the storm. Urban Gleaners’ mission is to re-purpose and distribute excess and wasted food from restaurants, groceries, event venues and businesses to food-insecure families – and, in the process, keep perfectly good food out of the waste stream.
Unfortunately, 85 percent of the agency’s food sources no longer exist. “The pandemic has completely changed what we can do,” says Tracy Oseran, founder and executive director of Urban Gleaners. From running 67 distribution sites that fed approximately 5000 people per week, the organization has had to slice its distributions to food boxes for around 500 families per week.
“It’s heartbreaking – we just don’t have the product,” says Oseran. “The supply chain is disrupted, as you can see by the empty shelves in the supermarket. Our model is based on eliminating food waste, and that has dried up.”
Urban Gleaners is creatively pursuing alternative food sources, including buying produce from farmers who previously relied on restaurant clients. Mainstays like Dave’s Killer Bread and Market of Choice are still contributing, and the agency is also buying through mega-wholesaler Sysco. One-time donations turn up, like 2000 pounds of healthful and delicious sausage that didn’t meet a local meat processor’s standards for retail sale.
In the meantime, Urban Gleaners is distributing food boxes at four summer lunch program sites operated by Portland Parks and Recreation. Oseran continues to seek out other sources of high-quality food to serve the tremendous – and growing – need.
“For the time being we’ll hobble along, and this too shall pass,” she reflects. “We’re Americans, and we like to waste. I have no doubt that we will start wasting again before too long.”
When we do, Urban Gleaners will be there to feed Oregonians.
— Heidi Yorkshire