Gleaning Photo Essay
For our final project in Intro to Conservation Photography, we were assigned to create a photo essay in teams of three. We chose to cover the Stanford Gleaning Club.
The kumquats in this photo were picked by student volunteers in Stanford’s Gleaning Club near Stanford’s main quad. The group is run by students and they pick fruit from many trees across campus.
At Stanford, there are actually over a hundred fruit trees scattered around many buildings and streets. To keep track of all the different trees, the Gleaning Club has made an Open Source Online Collaboration Map that allows anyone to find or mark the location of fruit trees on campus.
Although the kumquats in this photo are in season and ready to be picked, the tree was not originally intended to be used for the fruits, rather for decoration. However, the gleaners have decided to make use of this excess fruit and since there is a wide variety of trees found across campus, there are usually a few different fruits ready to be picked each season.
Every year, approximately 96 billion pounds of food is left on their trees or bushes. The Gleaning Club is part of Stanford’s effort to reduce campus food waste. Founded by students in 2009, gleaners pick ripe produce from all over campus that would otherwise fall and rot.
Nancy Chang is this year’s president. Here she bikes to a gleaning location with the club’s gleaners - tools for picking high-hanging fruit.
Here’s how the gleaners work: hook the desired fruit on the spokes at the end of the head, pull down with the pole, and catch the fruit in the basket!
The Gleaning Club usually meets every Friday at 3:30 at whatever location gleaning needs to be done! This session took place in next to the University President’s office in the main quad.
Nancy smiles as she tests the ripeness of a smaller tangerine. The Gleaning Club is one of many gleaning communities around the world that work to reduce food waste.
One of the club traditions is to guess the total weight of the gleaned fruit. This time, around 7 pounds were picked.
Anyone who participates is also welcome to eat the fruit that they pick. Sometimes, fruit gets damaged during the gleaning and is unfit to donate, which makes them perfect for eating on the spot. The gleaning club also hosts a cooking session each quarter with whatever fruit is in season; this quarter the kumquats were used to make homemade marmalade.
The club activities are open to everyone in the Stanford community, making it a great sustainability and volunteering experience for anyone to try. In addition, almost all of the produce is donated to those in need in the Bay Area.