For our friends and neighbors who have to work hard to keep healthy foods on the table in the best of times, the COVID-19 pandemic will raise many additional challenges. These include more than illness and illness related expenses; they also include challenges like lost wages, unforeseen childcare expenses, lack of transportation or ready access to healthy foods through school meal programs, as well as likely closures of grocery stores and food pantries. At Rolling Harvest, we are committed to “rolling on”, and continuing to inviting healthy and willing volunteers to glean fields and collect food from our generous farmers, to ensure that healthy produce is available to those who need it most. Based on the current available guidance from the USDA and CDC, we believe that we can continue this important work, with the help of our dedicated volunteers, as long as we follow a few basic guidelines. If you have questions, contact contact csnyder@rollingharvest.org.
- Don’t volunteer if:
- you or any member of your household traveled to a level 3 or level 2 travel health notice country within the past 14 days
- you or anyone in your household experienced potential exposure to the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 14 days. If you are unsure, please use the CDC’s risk assessment tool to assess potential exposure.
- To your knowledge, were you in the same indoor environment as a person who has tested positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19) (e.g., in the same classroom or hospital waiting room) in the last 14 days.
- You or any member of your household are exhibiting any of the following symptoms (without a known cause, e.g., allergies): runny nose, sore throat, fever, cough, or shortness of breath.
- Before you glean, you must wash your hands and arms for at least 20 seconds with soap under warm running water.
- If possible, use single-use sanitary gloves to handle food, but you must still wash your hands.
- While handling food, you must re-wash your hands, or replace your gloves if you: touch a body part, an animal, cough, sneeze or use a tissue, eat or drink, use tobacco, or engage in any other activity that might contaminate your hands.
- If you need to sneeze or cough move away from the food and other volunteers and cover your nose or mouth with a tissue or your elbow.
- Be mindful of cleaning any other surface that comes in contact with food, as studies have shown that human coronaviruses can persist on surfaces like plastic, metal or glass for up to nine days.
- Keep a social distance from other volunteers. Wave to your fellow gleaners, air hugs work too! Try to maintain a distance of 6 feet from your fellow gleaners wherever possible.
