The pilot program aims to “save” food, redistribute to the needy – dove 605

People who have attended autumn festivals at Pumpkin Patches Area may believe that in late October the fields were chosen clean. Look carefully and unattractive pumpkins, imperfectly shaped or without stems, remain.

And the summer joke to lock your car so that neighbors can’t put the multitude of zucchini pumpkin inside? Sometimes it’s no joke.

Every season of the harvest there is production that can be used, but for several reasons it is not. For centuries, flush has been about the collection of residual grain and production, which is abandoned after harvest. The practice dates back to the Old Testament times when landowners were ordered to leave part of the harvest for the poor, orphans, widows and foreigners.

Today, the term is largely replaced in two words: restoration of food. Last fall, ancient practice received a new twist in the Sioux waterfall when volunteers gathered to turn donated products into salsa, marinara sauce and vegetable soup to feed families and individuals in the winter.

The food rescue system is a pilot project launched through Sioux Falls Thrive, a workforce development agency from swing to career. The jars and food bags were spread through another Sioux Falls Thrive service, the mobile food closet.

Its purpose is to ensure that the production is no longer going to waste, said Sioux Falls is flourishing President Michelle Erpenbach.

“Food waste data is crazy,” she said. “The USDA appears at least 30 percent, if not more, from the food that is grown, even here on farms, goes to lose before it even reaches the grocery store. Indeed, what is the goal of understanding how to prevent some of the waste, and then to help relieve some of the problems we have with nutritional uncertainty with hunger in our city. We want to save him from waste and turn him into something that is edible and people will rejoice. “

The goal of Sioux Falls Thrive to make sure that every child has the same opportunity to succeed means that he often has to focus on making sure that no one is starving, Erpenbach said. Food security is essential and community meetings have been held to create fair and sustainable access to food in each neighborhood.

“Some neighborhoods have it better than others, so let’s see if we can equalize it,” Erpenbach said.

One ways may be to take excess and turn it into affordable products. If someone has apple trees in their yard that produce much more fruits than they can use, it needs a system to bring it into the hands of others.

For the pilot project last September, the volunteers ended with 203 kilograms of production. Volunteer Arlin Brand-Jzhzson started this day, driving to Blue Sky Vegestable Co. Near Worthing to take production like tomatoes, peppers and cabbage. Blue Sky is a family -owned farm stock company. Other products like pumpkins were also donated.

“I helped to wash some products, then I just stepped back and watched the cooks talk to each other,” Brand-Jzhngson said. “They said,” Well, we have this and this, let’s do it with them “and we started to cut and bake vegetables. I just somehow stayed off the road and watched the incredible chefs doing their own thing. “

The chefs were hired by another Sioux Falls Thrive, Amanda Viau Hopkins. During the day, she is the director of the Food Service and temporarily acting director of environmental services for Avera Mckennan and knows a network of cooks.

“I just sent an email to some of the culinary people who are in the area and world of my friend,” she said. “They are my friends who have similar hopes for our community, and those who have been able to do so.”

Viau Hopkins stated that the goal to ensure that viable health production not only is not wasteful, but also beneficial for those in need, has its overall support.

The real day itself, she said, was “super fun”.

“While thinking about it, there were moments of growth and companionship,” Viawu Hopkins said. “No one knew each other and by the end of that, people found the relationships they had. Volunteers become friends. In the end, packing the products in the freezer to make sure it would be appropriate, I saw bags and bags and looked great. “

Brand-Hazson, a chief gardener from 2011, is the president of the gardeners of the county. It lifts the usual tomatoes, peppers and onions and more unusual products such as 40 pounds of sweet potatoes and Edama or immature soy. Its food storage area includes pizza sauce, pasta sauce, chili base and frozen green beans and broccoli.

“I am very recycling and I do not want things to waste, which includes food, and I am a climate champion,” Brand-Jzhngson said. “Food waste is one of the main contributions to greenhouse gases. When foods look at landfills, it releases methane and this is 20 times more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. “

If the Sioux Falls Thrive establishes a food rescue system, which will help mitigate climate change and food waste and help people care for their neighbors, she said.

“We have to take care of the people who do not have the resources we do and we can offer food to those who need it.”

Brand-Jengon is also a member of Thrivent. She received a grant from the $ 250 financial services company, which was used to buy spices, preservation of jars and lids – and pizza to serve volunteers.

Wesley United Methodist Church, near the center of Sioux Falls, has a trade kitchen in its basement used for the pilot project. The clubs for boys and girls from the Siuri empire donated tomatoes to the pilot project; In return, she received some of the salsa.

Other donations have been made to food closet churches in the early neighborhoods of Laura B. Anderson and Terry Redin. The Marinara sauce was donated to the mobile food market where it was distributed to customers.

“You have a port for a week if you bought pasta,” Erpenbach said. “You can buy most pasta for less than a dollar, so you could eat full food for almost no money.”

Determining how to distribute production from the food food system is one of the next steps. Small additional nutritional closets do not need 50 cases of tomatoes, the way South Dakota feeds can use them, but 10 jars can make a significant difference, she said.

This winter, the Sioux Falls Thrive will build a “tool kit” for the food food system and will reach people and churches who want to make it work, Erpenbach said. Groups that take care of neighborhood gardens can also participate. Until the tomato season in July, there should be a system to absorb the excess.

“We will have a place for food that will otherwise have nowhere to go,” Erpenbach said.

People interested in helping this food saving program or other effort to security for food security can send an email to Sioux Falls to thrive at [email protected]S More information is also available here.

“My big question is always’ Who is missing in this conversation? “Said Erpenbach. “Send us an email what you know, you think it will help this project grow efficiency. The end result is that we have proven that we can do it, we have proven that there is an appetite, the need not only to save this food, but also to turn it into something that does not need to be used immediately. “

The bags and jars that appeared at the end of the pilot project day were more than the rescued production, Viah Hopkins said.

“It was a family that is being served in our community,” she said. “That was quite impactful.”