It wouldn’t be possible to feed the hungry with fresh fruits and vegetables without farmers like Hank Scott. Long & Scott Farms, of Mt. Dora, Florida, have been working with Society of St. Andrew since 1999.

One day, 16 years ago, Hank Scott and his family invited SoSA to send volunteers out and pick some surplus corn. Their Zellwood Sweet Corn is beautiful food, and SoSA was glad to pick it and distribute the bounty to Florida food pantries.

Since that day, more than 950 gleaning events have been held at Long & Scott Farms. More than 25,000 SoSA volunteers have picked 17 million pounds of corn, strawberries, cabbage, turnips, onions, cucumbers, watermelons, and other produce at Scott’s farms. These events have provided more than 50 million servings of food for the homeless and hungry in Florida.

Scott says he visited the Second Harvest Food Bank one day with Barbara Sayles, our Regional Director in Florida. He was impressed with the way his crops are distributed by SoSA, through the food bank system.

Scott says supermarkets want food to look perfect, but he knows perfect food comes in lots of shapes and sizes, and Mother Nature doesn’t make them all look the same. Scott doesn’t want that wonderful food thrown away, and that’s why he continues, all season long, to invite SoSA volunteers to glean his fields.

Hank Scott is a great partner in the system that makes SoSA such a success. Generous farmers, faithful volunteers, and an efficient system of food banks and food pantries are the way we feed millions of hungry people every year.