How the Gleaners got so Gleeful

“It was kind of an experiment that evolved”

An Informal Interview With One of the Original Gleaners Part One

The Gleeful Gleaners of South Whidbey is a living organism, brought to life by a group of determined and passionate humans with a shared ideology of sustainable food and healthy living. I have the title of Gleaning Associate for 10 short weeks, and for that time I preserve the mission and goals of the people before me. As the height of fruit season comes upon us, I began to wonder about the start of this program that I am now a member of. A.T. Birmingham Young is one of the original pillars that helped create a platform for - and cultivate the program - that is the Gleeful Gleaners; she is also my first window into the past.

My initial structured interview questions sought to unveil the parallels between the original gleaning system and our current gleaning system, telling a linear story of evolution. Although through speaking with A.T. it became a more fluid storytelling experience, where I had to break from the dynamic world she painted for me to remember to write snippets of it down.

We started by discussing the formation of these ragtag catalysts. The Gleeful Gleaners were named due to the nature of the program, “it was fun, it was fun for a good cause.” To test its functionality, “the Gleeful Gleaners started as an independent project before merging with Good Cheer...to see if it would fly.” I asked A.T. about the original goals of the program, she said that everyone had their own perspective yet they overlapped with the common goals of “cutting down the waste, getting good food to people who need it, sharing resources, and building community,” her personal goal? “Collectively honoring the abundant resource of these trees and South Whidbey's agricultural heritage, by connecting generous folks with a community need.”

I inquired about building trust within the community and a volunteer base. A.T. described a myriad of ways people got involved, “we put it in the paper, reached volunteers through word of mouth, we put out a blast in the Good Cheer news and to local church and youth groups. Also we asked our visitors, family and friends to come and pick, it was very organic in that sense.” As far as building trust, that was never something it seemed they had to work on, “there is nothing like bonding with people while you’re picking fruit, and we became very protective of our tree owners, we were very careful about the relationship and conscientious about these interactions.”

A.T. described a group of people who saw a problem and stepped up together to fix it. At its core, the Good Cheer Gleeful Gleaners have not changed. My last question regarded her departure from the program, was it hard passing the torch? A.T. described how her life had intensified and other urgent things needed her attention, but fellow gleaners had stepped into her shoes and the shoes of the original crew. I hope, as she does, that this will always be the case.