The National Gleaning Project (NGP) is a three year project of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) at Vermont Law School, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Library (USDA-NAL). Gleaning is an ancient practice that allows the collection of unharvested crops for distribution to needy populations, and was once recognized as a legal right for the poor in other countries. The practice continues today, and given the increasing attention focused on food waste, movement is growing. The NGP was created in response to the need for a national network connecting modern agricultural gleaning and fresh food recovery organizations across the United States, both to each other and to legal resources that can help grow their work.
The NGP is specifically focused on legal barriers to enhancing gleaning and fresh food recovery in the United States. This site provides information on national and state laws and regulations pertaining to gleaning and food donation, state specific factsheets on gleaning and food donation liability, an interactive map of gleaning and fresh food recovery organizations across the country, and other topical resources.
The resources included in this guide are consistently screened for relevance, robustness, and ease of use. This site is a living resource intended to be updated as our work progresses. We encourage and welcome input from users. Please send questions and comments to: [email protected].
