By Dave Lefever, dlefever@lancasterfarming.com Oct 2, 2026 Updated Oct 6, 2026
Image Caption: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, center, joins farmers and nonprofit organization leaders at Solebury Orchards, New Hope, Pa., on Oct. 2, 2026 for a roundtable talk on ways to reduce food waste. Shown, from left, are John Crooke, local farmer; Cathy Snyder, Rolling Harvest Food Rescue; Paige Riegner, Congressman Ryan Mackenzie’s office; Kyle Melandor, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick’s office; Zeldin; Erin Lukoss, Bucks County Opportunity Council; Jamie McKnight, Rolling Harvest; Marissa Christie, United Way of Bucks County; and Brian Smith, owner and manager of Solebury Orchards.
NEW HOPE, Pa. — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency visited a Bucks County orchard Oct. 2 to celebrate local efforts to donate farmers’ excess local produce.
“Too much food goes to waste across America,” said Lee Zeldin, the agency’s administrator, at Solebury Orchards.
The visit was one of Zeldin’s stops on a tour of food waste initiatives around the country as part of EPA’s Feed It Onward project.
Feed It Onward aims to connect food donors with communities in need while keeping food waste out of landfills.
Zeldin’s point of contact in setting up the roundtable was Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, a nonprofit serving Bucks County and surrounding areas, including part of New Jersey.
“We’re a modern-day gleaning organization,” said Cathy Snyder, who founded Rolling Harvest in 2012 and grew it to six full-time employees and about 400 volunteers.
The nonprofit’s staff members work closely with farmers, who can contact them any time they have extra produce.
Even if the crop still needs picking in the field, volunteers will do the harvesting and see that it gets to a food pantry or other means of distribution.
One of the local produce farmers benefiting from the group is John Crooke of Tinicum CSA.
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“I was delighted that there was already an organization that wanted us to call them when we had produce available,” said Crooke, who offers already-picked produce as well as hosting gleaning events.
“I compost way less produce because of Rolling Harvest,” he said.
Brian Smith, the owner of 90-acre Solebury Orchards, often has leftover produce for the nonprofit, although this year his apples and peaches suffered a nearly complete loss from a killing frost in April.
“There’s never a complete balance between what you grow and what you sell,” Smith said.
Dave Lefever
On his tour, Zeldin said he is seeing various innovative ways local entities are dealing with food waste. It is a growing field, with a number of new projects in motion.
“The best examples we’ve seen across the country are not old networks,” he said. “They are a few years old.”
Feed It Onward is cultivating partnerships across the country.
The purpose of the tour, he said, is “getting the story out of what’s working.”
Also participating in the roundtable were representatives of United Way of Bucks County, the Bucks County Opportunity Council, and staff of U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Ryan Mackenzie, both Republicans.
