Society of St. Andrew

Rescuing produce, reducing food waste and building caring communities by serving hungry neighbors across the U.S.

The Society of St. Andrew is concerned with two primary community needs:

1. HUNGER. 47 million people in the United States are hungry: 35 million of them are skimping on food or missing meals because they are juggling expenses every month to get by, choosing between heat or medicine and food. Another 13 million people in the United States are hungry every single day, not knowing where their next meal is coming from.
2. CREATION CARE. More than 133 billion pounds of good food is wasted in the United States every year, thrown in landfills or left to rot in fields. This food waste represents hundreds of billions of dollars of lost resource inputs and becomes the second largest source of harmful greenhouse gases as it decomposes.

Every year, the Society of St. Andrew engages our Gleaning Network (25,000 or more volunteers – both people with plenty and those in need) in the biblical practice of gleaning: picking, digging or gathering nutritious food remaining after harvest to share with neighbors in need.  Additionally, our Potato & Produce Project transports large truckloads of surplus or unmarketable produce to areas of greatest food insecurity around the country.  The Seeds Project delivers seed potatoes and seed packets of regionally and culturally relevant vegetables as well as pollinator flowers to high-poverty communities, so residents can grow food to feed their families and share with their neighbors.  Harvest of Hope brings people together for a work and study mission retreat.  Each year, hundreds of young people and adults learn about hunger and creation care through Bible study, dynamic worship, and educational programming. Their study time supports days of field gleaning and leads to projects addressing hunger in their home communities.

These programs together (Gleaning Network, Potato & Produce Project, Seeds, and Harvest of Hope) share 25-40 million pounds (100-160 million servings) of healthy food with people in greatest need throughout the United States.

The Society of St. Andrew will mobilize volunteers to conserve and steward the earth’s resources, salvaging and sharing fresh produce, so everyone in the United States can access healthy and sufficient food to thrive.

The Society of St. Andrew envisions a world without hunger. When sharing healthy and nourishing food with people in need becomes standard practice, and when discarding healthy food or tossing it in landfills becomes a last resort rather than an easy choice, then we will see our communities changing in ways that respect human life and the earth’s resources.

Jennifer Davis Sensenig
Director of Church Relations
434-400-5915
church@endhunger.org

D’Lynn Burgess
Development Director
800-333-4597
sosadev@endhunger.org