In my elementary-school years, every fall, our congregation would go out to farms after the farmers had done their harvesting. We’d systematically pick whatever produce was left behind – anything edible and good. This ancient practice, called gleaning, common in many parts of the world, limits food waste and feeds hungry people.
We see it in Leviticus where, as the people settle into the Promised Land, God reminds the community not to pick the land bare when they are harvesting. Instead, they are to leave some for the poor, the needy, the stranger, the orphan and the widow. Wealthy farmers (and even the subsistence ones) would leave some of the harvest behind for people who didn’t have the land or means by which to grow their own food.
Today it is devastating when so much perfectly good food is tossed aside, not only because people are hungry, but because land, fossil fuels and actual creatures are wasted. Food rescue work is gleaning with a modern twist. Many organizations, for example, save day-old bread and leftover buffet meals that can’t be sold. The groups share this bounty with people who really need it.
This message is excerpted from the Bible study “Scripture and Nature: Teachers of faith” by Sara Olson-Smith in the March/April 2024 Gather magazine.
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