This summer, I feel very lucky to be completing a fellowship with the Merrymeeting Gleaners group at Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program. This fellowship, funded by Bowdoin College’s McKeen Center for the Common Good, has provided me with knowledge and hands-on experience I will carry with me throughout college and my career. Before I began this fellowship, you could say I was “gleaning-curious.” I was familiar with the basic concept — volunteers harvest surplus crops from farms, which they donate to hunger relief efforts — but I had never actually gleaned. Now, I glean three mornings a week, traveling to local farms to pick everything from strawberries to Swiss chard.

Gleaning is an elegant way to fight both food waste and food insecurity. Farming yields are inherently imprecise. They are influenced by weather, pests and many other factors outside of human control. That unpredictability, paired with a fast-moving economy, is challenging and often leads to surplus crops staying in the fields. Gleaning can rescue thousands of pounds of produce and provide fresh, local, nutritious meals to folks who may not be able to access them otherwise. It takes time, patience and hard work, but the process is powerful and rewarding. About halfway through the harvest season, we have rescued almost 3,000 pounds of produce, equivalent to about 2,500 meals! I am so grateful to the folks at Six River Farm, Goranson Farm and Harvest Tide Organics who open their fields to this work.

Once the harvest is complete, I head to MCHPP’s Food Bank to sort and prepare produce for distribution. I find something very satisfying in tasks like bunching carrots, bagging lettuce, sorting potatoes and packing boxes of fresh food to be distributed in MCHPP’s programs. It has been truly rewarding to follow the vegetables I harvest through every step of their journey from the field to the consumer — I feel connected to our food system in a way I never have before despite previous work in gardens and at a farmstand.

One amazing aspect of this fellowship has been the opportunity to experience a wide variety of different programs within MCHPP. I have assisted guests in the food pantry, prepared apricot jam in the kitchen, tagged along to pick up donations from a grocery store and so much else! Seeing so many sides of MCHPP has made me appreciate just how much work goes into fighting food insecurity. Something consistent across each of these experiences is the amazing team that makes it happen.

MCHPP’s staff and volunteers are truly like nowhere else. They are dedicated, positive and passionate about their work, even in the face of challenging tasks and demoralizing headlines. I love chatting with volunteers and meeting so many friendly new faces, and I leave each day energized by their enthusiasm. I will certainly be returning for volunteer shifts once my fellowship ends, and I would encourage anyone who’s curious to sign up to volunteer! Whether you want to be sitting in air conditioning or harvesting under the sun, there’s something for everyone. If your experience is like mine, you’ll get to learn new skills, make friends and see how your work nourishes your community.

Maya Khalil is a 2025 Bowdoin Fellow at Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program.