Berry Recovery Project Outreach

We have participated in the Berry Recovery Project as part of our outreach within the Pacific Northwest. The Berry Recovery Project addresses food waste and hunger and connects producers with industry-endorsed volunteer harvest crew.

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The Berry Recovery Project

The Berry Recovery Project addresses food waste and hunger and
connects producers with industry-endorsed volunteer harvest crew.

Overview

One in seven Oregonians face hunger. At the same time, thousands of pounds of fruit go to waste each year. That’s why the Berry Recovery Project is addressing food waste & hunger with berry industry-specific solutions.

The Berry Recovery Project connects producers with trained & industry-endorsed volunteer harvest crews who work according to GAP, FSMA, and other industry standards for food safety and on-farm practices. After the crews harvest, they deliver the fruit to food redistribution centers, where it will be passed on to those who need it most.

The Berry Recovery Project also connects processors with food distribution groups, facilitating low-hassle donations of surplus shelf stable and frozen berries.

“It’s a win-win for everybody. I’d definitely recommend {this project} to any other growers who are in the same situation and have some extra that they don’t want to just let drop on the ground. It goes to good use.” — Andy Liner, Halls Ferry Farm

For growers and Producers

The berry recovery project for growers and producers helps you pour much inputs into growing quality fruits recoup value from your fields.

For food access groups

Your organization probably already has a crew of volunteer harvesters, connections to local farms, and a system for redistributing the food you harvest to those who need it most.

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2018 - 2020 Pounds of Berries Donated

2018-2019

Grower & Processor Donors

Growers and processors who donated either fresh, shelf stable, or frozen fruit to the community through the Berry Recovery Project

Berry Recovery Updates

Congratulations to Yamhill County Gleaners for being endorsed by Northwest Berry Foundation’s Berry Fruit Recovery Project! The leader of Yamhill County Gleaners completed the Food Safety Modernization Act Grower Training in the summer of 2019. With a FSMA trained leader, Yamhill County Gleaners are now up-to-date on the new food safety rules and protocols. Part of the Berry Fruit Recovery Project funded by DEQ is to assess how gleaning groups are meeting these FSMA rules. NBF created a rigorous 46-point food safety checklist that gleaning groups must meet before being endorsed by NBF’s Berry Fruit Recovery Project. Yamhill County Gleaners successfully passed their inspection on June 5th, 2020 and is the first group to be endorsed! As of June 22nd, Yamhill County Gleaners has harvested over 600 pounds of strawberries and have donated fruit to the Salvation Army and Church on the Hill in McMinnville, Veterans of Foreign Wars in Willamina, and Grand Ronde First Nations Foodbank. Thank you to Goddik Farms for partnering with Northwest Berry Foundation and helping reduce food waste and putting berries in the hands of those who need it most. Again, congratulations Yamhill County Gleaners!

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The Berry Fruit Recovery Project kicked off the 2020 season with its first strawberry harvest with Yamhill County Gleaners at Goddik Family Farms on Friday, June 5th.

If you want to donate imperfect fruit without impacting your company’s reputation for high quality product, we can arrange to repack you donation into containers that don’t have your logo on it before the fruit is redistributed to those who need it.