wfn.org | Society of St. Andrew Extends Gleaning

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (254
notes).

Note 254 by UMNS on Aug. 1, 1997 at 16:22 Eastern (2779 characters).

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

Contact:  Joretta Purdue                         442(10-71BP){254}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722            Aug. 1, 1997

New Mississippi Society of St. Andrew
salvages 45,000 pounds of produce in first month

                 by United Methodist News Service

     The Society of St. Andrew, a grassroots hunger action and
education ministry headed by two United Methodist clergymen, has
extended its program into Mississippi.
     Volunteers and the director of the organization's fifth
location had a successful first month, salvaging nearly 45,000
pounds of produce during July.
     A "potato drop" accounted for 40,000 pounds of the total.
Diane Stanton-Rich, the new director, with volunteer help that
included the United Methodist bishop serving Mississippi,
distributed the potatoes to numerous agencies, hunger programs and
the Mississippi Food Network July 26 at the state fairgrounds in
Jackson.
     Bishop Jack Meadors of the Jackson Area welcomed the Society
of St. Andrew Mississippi Gleaning. He said, "This ministry is
another example of how the church can be in mission to children
and the poor in society."
     Stanton-Rich, who opened the new location July 1, said
Mississippi has the highest rate of children in poverty and the
second highest overall poverty rate. She remarked that she takes
Jesus' command to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless very
seriously.
     "Americans waste 27 percent of their food, according to a
recent USDA (Department of Agriculture) report," she noted, adding
that it has been estimated that 5 percent of the waste could feed
four million people a year.
     She and volunteers -- many of them teen-agers -- have been in
the fields to gather donated produce at 6:30 in the morning and
again in the evening. The week of the drop, they picked corn and
tomatoes and gathered white, red and sweet potatoes.
     This extension of the society, which is based in Big Island,
Va., follows the addition in recent years of staff in Florida,
North Carolina and Texas.
     The national organization began in 1979 in Virginia. Since
then volunteers have provided hundreds of millions of food
servings for the hungry by preventing the loss of 15 million
pounds of produce annually. Unpicked overage is usually plowed
under in the field. Produce that does not meet standards of size
or shape is usually dumped in landfills. 
     Through volunteers who pick or bag produce, the Society of
St. Andrew makes the food available to the hungry for less than 2
cents a serving.
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