The Society of St. Andrew (SoSA ) brings millions of pounds of food to poor people in the United States every year.
Jackie Usey, center, is the MS Program Coordinator for the Society of St. Andrew. She stands with volunteers who are gleaning a field of turnips for distribution.
In Mississippi alone, SoSA has delivered over 6 million pounds of salvaged potatoes and other food to the needy in Mississippi through its Potato and Produce Project. This has resulted in an estimated 18 million servings of food going to Mississippi's hungry since 2005.
SoSA has eight regional offices throughout the nation, including one in Jackson and is known as the premier food rescue and distribution ministry in the nation.
The Christian based ministry began in 1979 and has its national office in Big Island, Virginia. It has grown into an ecumenical, non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to leading others into lives of Christian community and service.
The food gets to the needy through a volunteer-driven Gleaning Network. In Mississippi that network includes volunteers who save fresh produce every year and use it to feed hungry people all across the state.
Through the Mississippi Gleaning Network, volunteers work with SoSA throughout the state who actually enter fields after farmers have finished harvesting. Volunteers simply pick up the tons of good produce left behind. The volunteers represent groups from various church denominations, synagogues, youth groups, other civic organizations, individuals, and inner city residents.
The Program Coordinator in the Jackson regional office is Jackie Usey. Usey works with three separate groups to get produce rescued from fields and distributed to the needy.
“I work with farmers and produce houses which are the sources of the rescued food. I work with distributions centers which feed the poor like the Mississippi Food Network, Stewpot in Jackson and Love’s Kitchen in Meridian. And finally I coordinate the volunteers who actually go out to harvest produce from the fields,” said Usey.
"Due to the heat, we usually start very early in the morning and work until about ten o’clock.”
Usey said that SoSA gleans food from back yard gardens as well as large farms. “I encourage people to call me if they have small gardens that they would like to share produce from.”
SoSA Mississippi gleans produce from farms near Indianola, Vardaman, Hattiesburg, Meridian and Port Gibson among other cities.
Bishop Duncan Gray III said that the broad base of farms allows the opportunity for parishes and missions all over the Diocese of Mississippi to participate in helping this outreach ministry to help feed the state’s poor.
“The Society of St. Andrew is a great way for parishes and missions to get some good hands on ministry by coordinating efforts with a well organized and much needed outreach organization,” said Gray.
Usey says she is “always looking for produce growers will to work with us. We are always looking for volunteers to go out into the field.”
The types of produce gleaned follows the harvest year. In April, strawberries and blueberries are a big crop for SoSA. In mid-June, sweet corn is gleaned; sweet potatoes are harvested in late August, and pumpkins in October.
Last year, St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Jackson donated many pumpkins to SoSA from their pumpkin patch. Usey said she used some of the pumpkins to bring a program into to schools to study the issue of hunger. “The children learned about their less fortunate neighbors. We made pies and donated them to food distribution centers.”
The website for SoSA, //www.endhunger.org/default.htm , has extensive information on how parishes may get involved in the Gleaning Network and other programs, including Bible study materials which may be integrated into the church school curriculum of a parish or mission.
Also SoSA has complete financial reports available, including the latest annual report, so that volunteers may know how the outreach ministry spends its money.
For more information, visit The Society of St. Andrew website at the above link or call Jackie Usey at 601-850-4018.
“I’m always looking for produce growers willing to work with us. We are always looking for volunteers to go out into field as well as gathering produce from any size garden.”
