Fight Food Waste at the Santa Monica Farmers Market on Wednesdays!

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Who: Glean Team Leaders (GTLs) are trained volunteers who collect produce at Farmers Market "gleaning" events. If you are passionate about fighting hunger & food waste in your own community and are detail-oriented, you will love being a Glean Team Leader! You must be at least 16 years old to train as a GTL, and volunteers 16 - 17 years old must have a parent or legal guardian who trains and volunteers with them.

What: At the Torrance market, GTLs glean with a small team (1-3) of volunteers. GTLs distribute empty boxes to participating vendors, collect the food donations at the end of the market, weigh and record the donations, and prepare the produce for pick-up by one of Food Forward’s partner hunger relief receiving agencies.

You may need to lift boxes weighing up to 40 pounds, and you’ll need a smartphone to record donations or send us a photograph of the record. Food Forward provides liability insurance for the event.

When: The market glean is on Tuesdays from 12:30pm to 2:00pm. We ask Glean Team Leaders to commit to volunteering at 6 market events over the course of a year or less. Of course, if you’d like to volunteer more, we’d be thrilled. Shifts are about 1 hour long.

Why: We rely on our Glean Team Leaders to donate thousands of pounds of surplus fruits and vegetables every month from our 24 weekly Farmers Market Recovery events. A GTL will recover and donate 580 pounds of food at an average Farmers Market Recovery event.

How: We'll have you check out a glean at the market first with a trained Glean Team Leader. If you love it, we'll get you through the rest of our training and paperwork process! A background check (free to you) is required.

***Email volunteer@foodforward.org to let us know you're interested!***