Skookum Gleaners

The Skookum Gleaners project has been rescuing food since 2013 that would otherwise go to waste ensuring this food reaches those who need it. Much of it is donated to foodbank or community organizations that redistribute food through food programs. Skookum has managed this project since 2013,  as there are so many good reasons to pick as much local fruit as we can manage and see nothing go to waste!

Skookum Gleaners aims to provide a community service to fruit/nut/produce donors, to pickers, to local charities, while increasing our local food security making more food available in the region. We want to make the process as clear and transparent as possible, while maintaining careful records of what and how much was picked, where, by whom, and where the charitable donations went.

Our main activity is putting together teams of volunteer pickers to save fruit (and sometimes nuts) from people’s trees, bushes, or vines. We share this harvest among the pickers, the tree-owners, and those in need in our region. The shared harvest supports regional food self-sufficiency by connecting those who have excess produce on their properties with those who have the time and energy to harvest it.

If you would like to donate your fruit, nuts, or berries trees to our pickers as a Gleaner Program ‘Donor’, you can learn more here.

If you would like to volunteer this season as a Gleaner Program ‘picker’, you can learn more here.

Gleaner Program FAQ

Skookum Gleaners shares the local bounty of fruit, nuts, and vegetables with community organizations who provide services to help alleviate poverty and hunger in our community. You can participate as a picker, as a food donor, or as a charity.

The Food Donor Side of things

People with fruit, nuts or vegetables (henceforth ‘donors’) should be prepared to give us some details on what kind of produce they have to offer, when it will be ready to pick, other details like safety, accessibility of the site, specifics on the trees, etc. Skookum Gleaners is not an emergency fruit/nut removal service, so please sign up in advance.

Donors fill out the ‘Pick My Fruit’ donor form (preferred), email us at skookum@skookumfood.ca, or call Brian at 604-815-7623 to provide donor information (i.e. what kind of fruit, when it usually comes ripe, your location, equipment on site, etc). Our Gleaner Coordinator will check in with you on the status of your ripening fruit to determine the best pick day and organize the Gleaning Team to attend. We do not accept calls for picking blackberries, but everything else that is edible is fair game.

While we cannot absolutely assure donors that their fruit/nuts will be picked in their preferred timeframe, we will do our best to coordinate a team of pickers expediently. If no one has returned your call/email request within 36 hours, please let us know we’ll keep trying.

If you would like to donate fruit, nuts, or berries as a Gleaner Program ‘Donor’, you can learn more here.

The Picker Side of things

1. A stripped-down version of the pick information (with type of fruit/nut produce and general area of town the pick is in) is emailed out to the entire pickers’ list as soon as it comes in. This is to make the process fairer to people who work away from their computers, for people who are not online very often. People who do not use email will still be considered, but will be telephoned for picking details by the Team Leader (see Tasks for the Team Leader below).
2. Pickers pick up and read their email, if interested, respond to the call by emailing back to let the volunteer coordinator know.
3. The number of spots available for any pick is determined by how much there is to pick, typically 2 people per tree, but this may vary. Once the volunteer coordinator gets a response from the minimum number of pickers, the pick is confirmed with the Donor and a time set up and confirmed for the pick to occur. 
4. If there are more interested pickers than spots available on a given pick, and some responders have picked recently, they are bumped down on the list. This is to allow as many different people as possible to pick.
5. If there are more interested pickers than spots available on a given pick, the ones who respond later will be held over to the next pick and given preference there.
6. When a person replies to a call to pick, we assume that they will not be bringing friends, children, or others to the pick as well, unless they mentioned this when they responded to the call for pickers. It’s not fair to other pickers to have extra people show up at a pick.

If you would like to volunteer this season as a Gleaner Program ‘picker’, you can learn more here.