Yam Jam collects 100,000 pounds of food for needy
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A UMNS photo by Tamie Ross Sandra Horton takes a break from digging sweet potatoes with her granddaughter.
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Sandra
Horton takes a break from digging sweet potatoes with her 2
1/2-year-old granddaughter, Leah Wilbur. More than 700 people
participated in the Texas Conference chapter of the Society of St.
Andrew's annual "Yam Jam" The Texas chapter sponsors the Gleaning
Network each year with farmers, volunteers and food banks. Yam Jam is
one of the Gleaning Network's biggest events. A UMNS photo by Tamie Ross
Photo #04486 Accompanies UMNS Story #499, 10/26/04. |
Oct. 26, 2004By Tamie Ross* GOLDEN,
Texas (UMNS)--Sandra Horton surveyed the soft, brown earth, looking for
plump sweet potatoes to add to the orange mesh bag she was filling for
the Society of St. Andrew. Trouble
was, it looked as if all that remained in the muddy 27-acre field were
scrawny, black-spotted, root-resembling remnants of what used to be
sweet potatoes. Horton
had envisioned herself uncovering a bonanza that looked like the fat,
rich, copper-colored spuds she usually sifted through in a bin at the
grocery store. "Mom, you’re not looking at this field with hungry eyes," her daughter, Billie Wilbur, scolded her. That
phrase motivated the group from Mount Zion United Methodist Church,
which hails from Panola, Texas, for the rest of the day. One
and one-half filled bags and two hours later, Horton proclaimed herself
cured of her earlier blind spot. "I could probably buy and donate a lot
of potatoes for the price of the tendonitis shot I’ll need tomorrow,"
she joked. "But honestly, this feels good. We’re helping a lot of people
today."
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A UMNS photo by Tamie Ross Nick Wilbur, 11, couldn't resist leaving a seasonal mark on one of his finds.
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Nick
Wilbur, 11, couldn't resist leaving a seasonal mark on one of his
larger finds. He was one of more than 700 people who participated in the
Texas Conference chapter of the Society of St. Andrew's annual "Yam
Jam" The Texas chapter sponsors the Gleaning Network each year with
farmers, volunteers and food banks. Yam Jam is one of the Gleaning
Network's biggest events. A UMNS photo by Tamie Ross. Photo #04487
Accompanies UMNS Story #499, 10/26/04.
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More than 700 pairs
of gloved hands were expected at this remote patch of east Texas land
and another 70-acre field not far away for the annual "Yam Jam" on Oct.
23. The Texas chapter of the Society of St. Andrew sponsors the Gleaning
Network each year with farmers, volunteers and food banks. Yam Jam is
one of the Gleaning Network’s biggest events.Several
times each year, farmers grant rights for the volunteers to scour the
fields after mechanical harvesting is completed. The produce is then
distributed through local food banks to those who need it most. Each
gleaning session yields thousands of pounds of perfectly good produce
that otherwise would have been left in the fields to rot or be plowed
under. In Texas, five months each year – mid-June through mid-November -
is spent giving growing fields a once-over after the commercial picking
ends. The
fresh fruits or vegetables taken from the fields are put directly into
the hands--and onto the tables--of the hungry, usually within 48 hours.
Besides sweet potatoes, the society regularly works with farmers to
ensure apples, cucumbers, Irish potatoes, blueberries, squash, okra,
watermelon, pumpkin, corn and other produce reaches people who need
nourishment. Gleaning
is a biblical concept discussed in several Old Testament passages, the
most familiar is one cited by several volunteers as they weave through
the rows of green leaves that indicate sweet potatoes are nearby. "Who
hasn’t heard of the story of Ruth and thought, ‘Wow!’" said Wilbur,
reciting Ruth 2, where Ruth follow workers in the field, collecting
overlooked grain to feed herself and her mother-in-law, Naomi, whose
husbands both had died. "I’ve
never known hunger, and my children have never gone to bed crying
because they didn’t have anything to eat. Yet working out here really
helps you get it: These little sweet potatoes can mean the world to
people who don’t have enough food to feed their families," she said. Jubilant
workers like Wilbur’s 11-year-old son, Nick, unearthed a few
giant-sized yams somehow missed by mechanical diggers. But the majority
of the day’s bounty came from smaller, yet still healthy, potatoes
buried in the field. The
previous night’s downpour left puddles of water inside the huge tire
tracks that snaked through the fields. But the rain was a treat, said
Fred Fink, office director and field coordinator, and he never feared
the threat of a washout. "That
rain really cooled things off really well and made the soil easier to
dig," Fink said. "This is backbreaking work anyway, but a hot, sunny day
is devastating to us." In
its 25th year as an ecumenical organization founded to feed the hungry,
the Society of St. Andrew now collects 25 million pounds of left-behind
produce each year. Those who glean these fields represent churches,
civic groups and corporate organizations. The
Texas chapter, whose offices are at the First United Methodist Church
of Irving, nets about 2 million pounds of food each year, Fink said,
with Yam Jam accounting for 100,000 pounds of that total. Roughly 26
United Methodist groups participated in this year’s Yam Jam. Fink
wishes he and others could do more. An estimated 96 billion pounds of
American-grown food is wasted every year, forgotten in fields or tossed
into dumpsters because it spoiled. In
his 30-year career in computer sales for IBM, Fink never dreamed so
many people lacked access to fresh food. A job change and the resulting
two years with the Society of St. Andrew have taught him what he should
do "with the rest of my life," he said.
"I
never knew hunger existed like it does," Fink said. "And I never knew
so much food went to waste. By considering both of these facts together,
we can work to put a stop to both. "We
grow enough food globally to make sure that no one ever goes hungry.
It’s just a matter of getting what’s grown to those who need it in a
timely manner." *Ross is a freelance journalist based in Dallas. News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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