[mlocher]

There still are plenty of good people left in this world!

[PeteB570]

peanuts

Peanut farming around here leaves plenty of unpicked peanuts after the pickers move through.

[seoul62]

God Bless them./Just Asking - seoul62.......

[CindyDawg]

Yep. Awhile back a man had a truck loaded with grapefruit and gave me a bucket full. I offered to pay and he said these fell on the ground and something about the Lord would expect him to give them away to others.

[EggsAckley]

“People obviously need food.”

The above statement seems to be the point of the whole article. Oh dear, oh dear.......Americans are starving so badly that they have to go out and pick leftover veggies.

Pure propaganda.

[Carpe Cerevisi]

I guess the following day, no one could take a leek.

[Free_SJersey]

SOMETHING FOR NOTHING!!!!!! Denver liberals driving an hour or more to take more than they need, half of which will end up in a landfill. Yes, there are still good people in the world and these farmers are among them, but I’d bet most of the gleaners weren’t in need.

[Gabz]

I wish the tomato farmers in these parts would do something like this instead of first poisoning and later burning the fields.

[bikerman]

I wonder how many people really needed the food and just didnt show up in their cars and stuff as much as they can because it was FREE. We used to have free cheese and other items for the not so fortunate but the old folks would show up in their lincolns,caddies etc then turn around and try to sell it to stores in the area. Florida is full of gimmies.

[DManA]

Shows there is unlimited demand for anything free.

[weegee]

40,000 people? There are that many illegal immigrants there?

I’m told that Americans won’t pick produce.

[weegee]

How much were they paid an hour to do this work? I hear that this has to be low wage labor.

Free??? And they were Americans doing the labor?

Then again, in Ohio, there are people who will PAY to pick strawberries.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I was shocked by this story. That just seems like an awful lot of people. How did so many find out?

[tiki]

As a farmer I have to say WOW, but not SHAMWOW! We have stuff left all the time, I tell people about it and they all want me to go out and pick it and bring it to them, decrepit old ladies, yeah, able-bodied anyone else, no.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

I call bull on the numbers in this story. A 600 acre farm, 30 acres used for a parking lot, so around 570 acres left for “gleaning”.

At 570 acres, you would have 70 people per acre.

That is a 25 by 25 foot section of field per person to glean from. Since these were left-overs from harvest, how many carrots, potatoes and leeks do you figure each person got? Maybe a couple of pounds at most?

So, a 37 miles trip for Denver to dig in the cold ground for $3 worth of roots?

That seems a little odd to me.

[4yearlurker]

Back in 1963 we lived in Phoenix,AZ. One afternoon the old man took us to a huge potato field. Standing along the road were about 100 or so folks with burlap bags. I remember a lot of Indian women with their hair up in buns with long dresses. The farmer harvested all the potatoes he wanted and stood up on his tractor and waved his arm. We all ran in the field like a Easter Egg Hunt. Lots of small potatoes and some damaged ones. We filled three big burlap sacks with those dirty potatoes. The old man traded a sack of spuds for a sack of carrots at the local beer joint. Baked and boiled potatoes and carrots with white sauce for lunch and dinner all week.

[newbie 10-21-00]

Err, this is the WaPo. Convinient there are no pictures. Wonder why that happened. Maybe, just maybe, BECAUSE IT DIDN’T HAPPEN. 40,000 people my ass!!!!