A bountiful second harvest

YAKIMA, Wash. -- There might be something that defines "Yakima" better than apples.

Helping others.

Fall isn't just harvest time here in the Valley; it's also a season of reaching out to people in need.

One way that's done is by taking advantage of produce left after a field or orchard has been harvested.

It's called gleaning, a way of saving the bounty grown locally that might otherwise go to waste.

Orchards may have fruit, too small for the market, left on trees. Field crops may have blemishes or be too big to draw premium prices.

Those are foods practically begging to end up on someone's dinner table.

Gleaners might be invited into an orchard to pick leftover pears or into a field to garner potatoes left behind by harvesting machines; anything they find, or glean, could be for their own use.

Or, gleaners might do the same thing but instead pick to benefit someone else.

Which is where Northwest Harvest comes in. And what the last few weeks in the Valley have been all about. Thanks to growers and gleaners, a moveable feast of produce is on its way to the needy.

Teams of gleaners have been scouring several area orchards, picking juicy pears and piquant apples, at the peak of sweetness -- all for area food banks.

The largesse is going to Northwest Harvest, a warehouse/food bank in Yakima that services 40 other food banks in eight counties of Central Washington.

Gleaning involves generosity on several counts, explains Jacklyn King, a VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) volunteer at Northwest Harvest.

First, said King, there are the farmers and orchardists who open their land, sometimes year after year. Then there are the volunteers, who donate their time, muscles and output.

"The combination of gleaners and farmers has made tens of thousands of pounds of food available to those in need," King said.

In the last few months, gleaned fruits and vegetables have poured into Northwest Harvest -- apples from Alderson Orchard in Yakima; potatoes from Bouchey and Sealock farms in Toppenish; cherries from Thompson Orchards in Naches; pears from Harmony Orchards in Tieton; watermelon, zucchini, cabbage and cucumbers from Inaba Farms near Harrah.

Standing in a Wapato orchard on a windy, rainy Saturday morning earlier this month, Lisa Hall, warehouse coordinator for Northwest Harvest, surveyed dozens of bins filled with Red and Golden Delicious apples destined for local food banks.

"We really need all this," she said. "The majority of food banks are seeing a 20 to 50 percent increase in numbers from last year. People are struggling."

Hall was helping volunteers glean the 25-acre orchard belonging to Oscar Olney. The orchardist donated all of his 3,500 trees to Northwest Harvest this year.

He explained that his apples were striped ("not red enough"), so rather than lose money on having them picked commercially, he invited in the gleaners.

It wasn't just economics that motivated him to give away his entire crop, he noted.

"It's just part of being human," Olney said.

He also donates about 40 bins of apples to the Yakama Nation and church groups each year.

"I grew up in poverty, and I remember my roots," Olney explained.

Most of his bins were being filled by La Salle High School students; all four grades, or about 100 teenagers, pick every fall. Each grade spends a school day gleaning; the fruit of their labors goes to Northwest Harvest.

A project spearheaded by Ted Kanelopoulos, the school's director of campus ministries, it's been enthusiastically embraced by students.

Kat Carter, 15, is one. Although admitting it was "freezing" when the day started, "I'd definitely come do this again," she said.

Braving a brisk wind and orchard grass drenched with dew, hauling 10-foot ladders, filling heavy bags braced on their shoulders, plus buckets, boxes and bins -- it's a ton of work.

About 16 tons, considering that students filled 40 bins of goldens and reds, with each bin weighing approximately 800 pounds.

But it's good work, said Cody Hart, 15, who by 9 a.m. had already devoured the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he'd packed for lunch. (He was in luck, though; it turns out that La Salle provided a lunch once the picking was complete.)

Teacher Jack McMillan thinks the experience should serve as a reminder for students about the importance of reaching out to help less fortunate people.

Balanced on a ladder, McMillan was loading apples into a cloth bag when he got a cell-phone call from an athletic director at another school (McMillan is La Salle's football coach).

"I told him where I was and what we were doing, and he said 'Really? That must feel pretty good.' "

Freshman Horacio Aleman of Toppenish said he was glad to be helping the food bank. Although he had previously picked apples and pears to earn his own money, he enjoyed the La Salle experience more.

"With your friends, it goes by a lot faster," he explained.

All told, La Salle students filled more than 40 bins of apples and 11 of pears.

It wasn't only La Salle students combing orchards to help others. Sydney Bouchey, an Eisenhower High School senior, spent a Saturday picking apples at Olney's orchard. She'd never picked apples before, but it was part of performing community service, a school requirement, she said.

About 20 members from the Korean congregation of the Church of Love, at 67th and Summitview avenues, devoted a recent day to picking produce for Northwest Harvest. With laborers as young as 5, they scattered through Olney's orchard, twisting and lifting the apples as they'd been taught.

"We want our kids to learn how to help each other," explained Hui Jun of Yakima.

As for Doug Reisner, who is 73, he showed up because he wanted to do something to aid his newly adopted town; he relocated here in June from Charlotte, N.C.

"I was so pleased to find that farmers allow this," he said.

King, 56, agreed.

She moved here from the Midwest four years ago. Last spring she decided to commit a year to VISTA to "follow a different path rather than working at a full-time job. "

Most important, she said, is trying to allay some of the poverty that affects area families.

"I'm really impressed with all the good things going on here in the Valley," she said. "There are so many efforts looking for answers to problems."

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