Faith Feeds of Kentucky, Inc.

The mission of Faith Feeds is to glean fresh fruits and vegetables to give to Kentucky’s hungry. Encompassed within this mission is the provision of fresh produce to low-income and homeless individuals and families. This fresh produce will improve the diets of the people served. Faith Feeds is on its way to establishing an infrastructure for providing healthy food to low-access and low -income men, women and children.

“Gleaning” is described in Hebrew Scripture as follows: “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the alien ….”^[1]^^ The poor followed the harvesters in the fields, and gathered the remains of the crop, both those that fell out of the hands of the harvesters and those that escaped harvesting.^[2]^^

An adaptation of this biblical custom is the perfect answer in a country that wastes countless pounds of fresh, processed and prepared foods despite one in every six people being hungry. Food saved by reducing losses by just 15 percent could feed more than 25 million Americans every year at a time when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables.^[3]^^

[1] Holy Bible, Leviticus 19:9-10 (NRSV).

[2] Id. at Ruth 2:2.

[3] Gunders, Dana, “Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill”, Natural Resources Defense Council, August 2012 IP:12-06-B, p. 4, http://www.nrdc.org/food/files/wasted-food-IP.pdf (accessed January 31, 2013).