Apple Gleaning and a Jug of Apple Cider

Today September 26, 2016 the HOPE Club ventured to Longmeadow Farm in Hope, NJ. We left school at 3:20 PM and returned around 6:20 PM. When we got to the farm we were met by Ms. Bauer, the GT coordinator, Vanessa, a HOPE Club alumni, Mrs. Parauda, from LocalShare and Farmer Brad, who was kind enough to allow us to glean apples on his farm. Then Mrs. Parauda taught us how to glean and why it is so important. When produce hits the ground a farmer is not allowed to sell it even if it is perfectly good to eat. So by gleaning or picking the good produce off the ground we are able to donate it to those in need of food. This helps prevent food waste and feed those in need across NJ. Today we successfully gleaned about 680 pounds of apples! All the members who attended the trip today received community service hours, cider doughnuts and apple cider! Everyone had lots of fun (lots of laughter) and hopes to go gleaning again with LocalShare in the future!

In case you are wondering why the title has "and a Jug of Apple Cider" its because Matt H. (sophomore Matt H. not senior Matt H.) was able to take the leftover jug of apple cider with him home on the bus ride. When we arrived to school, he handed me the jug and I handed it to Nicole's sister Annie who took off running with it, Matt chased her to get the apple cider back, it was a very funny scene. Later when his parents arrived to bring him home, he handed the jug to me and ran to his car. I went home with the jug of apple cider and dumped the little that was left out into my laundry room sink (supposedly I was supposed to keep it for 8 years). Then I came up with an idea. Today was super fun and I thought it would be cool to create a HOPE Club time capsule where members can write things, draw things or add objects about their experiences in HOPE Club and put them into a time capsule such as the cider jug. And then years later new HOPE Club members can go back and read what is in the time capsule. This is different from just reading our website because the time capsule can be a physical collection that has something from any member who wants to contribute sharing their fun memories in HOPE Club.