ARLINGTON FRIENDS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE
614A N. Tazewell Street Arlington, VA 22203 | info@arlingtonurbanag.org

The Big Green Bean Glean of 2022
Description
Have you heard of a “Green Bean Bee”? It’s sort of like a quilting bee, but with green beans. To glean
green beans, at the farm we pull up the entire plant (otherwise we would be in the field for days picking
green beans). We stuff the plants into those big paper bags you use for lawn waste and haul them to acentral place to “glean” the green beans.
After two recent Green Bean Bees, Puwen Lee, gleaning coordinator, wrote:“On Friday, July 29, six volunteers rose early, picked 47 lawn bags full of bean plants, stuffed
their vehicles and delivered them back to to the Plot Against Hunger Produce Bagging Center at
Rock Spring Church and to people’s homes in Arlington. 19 volunteers stripped 576.5 lbs. of beans at the church and at home. Those beans were delivered to 4 area food pantries.
On Tuesday, August 2, seven volunteers rose early, picked 25 bags (and also harvested
potatoes and cucumbers), stuffed their vehicles, and delivered them to Rock Spring Church. 20volunteers stripped 353 lbs. of beans at the church. Those beans were delivered to a food bankand The Carlin Senior Apartment Community.
That’s an incredible amount of green beans! Safeway sells a pound of green beans for $2.29.
Using that number, these amazing volunteers harvested and processed $2,127 worth of green
beans which were harvested and delivered within 24 hours to area feeding programs. It doesn’t
get any fresher or better than that.
In addition to this harvest of green beans, as of August 4, gardeners throughout Arlington havedonated over 2,800 lbs. of fresh produce (vegetables, herbs, and fruit). Volunteers have bagged
and delivered it to area food pantries and feeding programs. And over 4,000 lbs. of produce havebeen gleaned (harvested) since the beginning of July.”
Not only did this volunteer effort provide fresh, nutritious produce to our neighbors in need ofsupplemental food, it provided an opportunity for the volunteers to build community and connection –just like old-fashioned quilting bees.

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614A N. Tazewell Street Arlington, VA 22203 | info@arlingtonurbanag.org

In the coming months, volunteers will harvest potatoes, corn, zucchini, and winter squash. If you’reinterested in helping with either bagging or delivering produce or gleaning, go to:https://arlingtonurbanag.org/plot-against-hunger/ Individuals and groups are welcome to help withharvesting.
Finally, we express our gratitude to Kathy Dwyer, pastor of Rock Spring Church and Marlise BarrAsher, Church Administrator, and Brian Davis, Custodian, and the Rock Spring Church congregation
for their generosity in allowing the Produce Bagging Program to operate in Carpenter Hall. We also
thank the dozens of volunteers who make this possible.

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ARLINGTON FRIENDS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE
614A N. Tazewell Street Arlington, VA 22203 | info@arlingtonurbanag.org

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ARLINGTON FRIENDS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE
614A N. Tazewell Street Arlington, VA 22203 | info@arlingtonurbanag.org

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ARLINGTON FRIENDS OF URBAN AGRICULTURE
614A N. Tazewell Street Arlington, VA 22203 | info@arlingtonurbanag.org

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614A N. Tazewell Street Arlington, VA 22203 | info@arlingtonurbanag.org

Category
1. Gleaning
2. Grow Your Own Food
3. Plot Against Hunger
Date CreatedAugust 7, 2022
Authorrobinb

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