SOUND OFF: Building community connections with the Gleaning Abundance Program

THE GLEANING ABUNDANCE PROGRAM (GAP) team and I had the pleasure of interviewing two local legends last month – Sandra Frangiadakis, founder of GAP, and Logan Dafoe, owner of Taproot Ferments. We spoke with Sandra while we sat in her garden under the grapevine, surrounded by fruit trees, where we talked about the importance of GAP in the community and if GAP could continue as an organization without any funding. Logan invited us into his backyard garden filled with plants and chickens, where we sipped on kombucha and discussed how gleaning can be incorporated into your everyday life. Sandra and Logan each shared their perspectives on the importance of gleaning and I noticed a few commonalities. They both stated community connections are vital to growth and success of passion projects, such as sustaining the GAP and Taproot Ferments.

The Gleaning Abundance Program was founded in 2013, inspired by the abundance of fruit growing locally in backyards and how much of it wasn’t being harvested. Sandra relied on the community to bring this idea of the GAP to life, collaborating with the Kamloops Food Policy Council (KFPC) and Mount Paul Community Food Centre. With the established network of people already in the KFPC, it was easy to find fruit trees to harvest and volunteers to help make it happen. Once the program started, it quickly became popular and there were suddenly too many trees to harvest and many volunteers wanting to help. Sandra mentioned it was a problem to solve, eventually resulting in the volunteers going to glean fruit trees without the coordinator there. This required the volunteers to bring their own ladders and distribute the fruit, while Sandra was still in charge of organizing the logistics. Having one-or-two paid coordinators working with the GAP is ideal to keep the program running smoothly. Sandra also talked about the importance of pruning the fruit trees throughout the year and how beneficial it is on the fruit production. If the trees are pruned and properly maintained during the winter and spring, the overall health of the tree and quality of fruit can be increased for the harvest season. When Sandra first started working with GAP, she would spend her summers scouting trees, talking with tree owners, thinning fruit, scheduling harvests with volunteers, gleaning and distributing fruit to local organizations. In the fall and winter, she would prune some trees that really needed the support, but it was on her own time. She reiterated the importance of the Gleaning Abundance Program needing a full-time coordinator, ideally year-round to manage the maintenance of the trees as well as the responsibilities throughout the harvest season.

(l to r)Anya Ziegelmann, Sandra Frangiadakis, Faith Bellamy, KFPC Co-Executive Director Sadie Hejazi. (Image Credit: KFPC)

Logan has built his kombucha business not only with his passion and knowledge, but also with the help of the community. Logan builds community connections with his neighbours by harvesting their abundant fruit trees. As Sandra did, Logan will also help out by pruning the fruit trees in the winter and spring to yield a higher crop and support the health of the trees. With the locally gleaned fruit, Logan uses it in his jun kombucha, which in turn makes the fermented beverage taste even more delicious. Logan’s business model was inspired by the act of gleaning – harvest the overabundance of local fruit and redistribute it back to the community. Logan shows his appreciation for gleaned goodness by sharing his fermented creations to those who provide him with fruit. If you haven’t had the chance to glean with Logan, you can find Taproot Ferments at the Kamloops Farmers Market every Saturday to get your hands on some locally sourced, locally made small batches of handcrafted kombucha.