By Mike Sever
Record-Courier staff writer
Like the gleaners of the Bible, a group of local church members is helping feed the hungry by harvesting food that typically would go to waste. They would like to expand both the number of farms and volunteers.
Last year, the group distributed more than six tons of corn and a bit more than two tons of potatoes, all from one local farm. The food goes to hot meal centers and emergency food pantries around the county.
Much of the food comes from the land of second-generation farmer Jeff Pochedly who has acreage in Hiram and Mantua townships. Pochedly grows some sweet corn for grocery stores, and huge quantities of potatoes — primarily for potato chip makers but also for consumers to use at home. He’s the last commercial potato grower in Portage and supplies tons of spuds to markets and chip makers.
Pochedly said he agreed to help out the group after they approached him last year because he felt it was a good idea.
“There is surplus at certain times. That’s how agriculture is,” Pochedly said. “I think its great you have volunteers to do this for the needy, if they can find a home for it,” he said.
Some corn and potatoes may not measure up to the strict standards of the stores or brokers who buy much of his produce.
“They may have a little defect, there may be smaller ears or damage from the picker,” he said. “Normally, they would just get grown away or sold at a reduced price.”
Kathy Hardy and her husband, Mike, are on the board for the Hunger Network in Ohio, an interdenominational group dedicated to eradicating hunger by changing conditions causing poverty.
Kathy Hardy said they learned of the Society of St. Andrew from a new board member on the Hunger Network.
The Society of St. Andrew is a grassroots hunger relief nonprofit that sponsors a number of projects, including a national gleaning network.
“We talked — it just seemed like such a neat thing. They save millions of pounds of food that go to waste,” Kathy Hardy said.
Their early efforts to recruit farmers didn’t go so well. They struck out with the first ones contacted. Then, Mike Hardy spoke with a vendor at the Haymaker Farmers Market in Kent while buying sweet corn.
“He worked at Jeff Pochedly’s farm and suggested I contact him.”
That initial conversation ended with Pochedly giving the fledgling group permission to pick through sweet corn that was rejected for sale to markets because the ears were too small or had slight damage from the picker.
With the promise of corn, the Hardys then contacted some of the meal programs and Christian cupboards.
“They were very receptive,” Mike Hardy said.
Potatoes are Pochedly’s other main crop, so the gleaning naturally expanded to spuds.
This year, the group has about 15 volunteers in teams of regulars and alternates who went out to glean corn and potatoes.
The gleaning is done inside at the grading stage, but it is still hard work, Mike Hardy said.
“You’re down on your knees with the potatoes, picking them off the floor of the barn. It’s not an easy job and it’s all hand work,” he said. Potatoes are sorted into 70-lb. bins and then carried to cars to transport to the food centers. They usually do between a couple hundred to 500 pounds a day, Hardy said.
Food is distributed to about a dozen organizations in Portage County which then use it for hot food programs and emergency food baskets.
The group is trying to expand the number of farms in the effort as well as volunteers, Kathy Hardy said.
“Some said they hire workers and let them take what’s left over, which is a good thing.
We found some farms that are already sending their excess to food pantries,” she said.
They have talked with individuals from other churches, and get positive responses, she said.
“What we’re thinking we would do, if we get other churches involved, and a farmer or two, is to get it organized.
She said local churches and groups interested in participating in the gleaning project may contact her at 330-673-1672.
Check out the Society of St. Andrew at its Web site: www.endhunger.org for more information on its programs.