Gleaning is facing some challenges but new projects are moving the work forward
Nanaimo has an abundance of fruit, nuts and vegetables growing in backyards and farmers fields throughout the region. Often gardeners and farmers grow more than they can use or share and the surplus goes to waste. Nanaimo Community Gardens’ gleaning program works to help respond to hunger and poverty in the community by coordinating gleaning efforts to share food that would otherwise go unused. But gleaning has faced challenges this year, for a number of reasons.
At the same time, a number of projects have been added to community garden efforts in the Nanaimo region. For example, a small pilot project at CHLY radio’s downtown Nanaimo station is using pepper plants to raise awareness about local food production.
We’re joined in the studio by Lee Sanmiya, the gleaning program coordinator at Nanaimo Community Gardens, and by Stein Johnson, the CHLY volunteer who initiated the chili pepper plant project.
