New Director of the Ballard Farmers Market Gleaners: Meet Olivia!

Please join us in welcoming Olivia as our new Market Gleaner director! Olivia grew up in Ballard, and still remembers attending opening day of the Ballard Farmers Market with her family. She was first introduced to Sustainable Ballard through the gleaning program, and now serves on the organization’s Board of Directors as its Treasurer. After working in global health for 7 years, Olivia is now wrapping up her Masters in Public Administration at UW. She is passionate about equitable food access and supporting local food systems, and is very excited to take this project on! In her spare time, Olivia enjoys cooking, gardening, hiking, and playing fetch with her dog Luna. 

We can also always use new volunteers to come glean with us! The Market Gleaning is a program for volunteers to collect fresh, local produce from the Ballard Farmers Market vendors and bring it to the new Ballard Food Bank for those who need it most. This is a simple and rewarding way to keep good produce out of the compost bin and into the hands of our Ballard neighbors in need. It’s fun, rewarding, and makes a tangible difference – in 2021, we collected over 25,000 pounds of food for the Food Bank!

We’re always looking for new volunteers to help feed the community while adhering to COVID-19 best practices. Volunteers can expect to help by collecting produce from the vendors, carrying boxes and sorting the collected food into containers at the Food Bank. Gleaning takes place from 1:45pm to ~4pm on Sundays, and we’re flexible with how often you volunteer – even giving your time once a month makes an impact in our community.

To learn more, email Olivia at gleanballard@gmail.com with the subject line “New Gleaning Volunteer.”