If you happened by the U.S. Space & Rocket Center Tuesday, you might have noticed a green pile with a bunch of people sitting around it. That pile was 20-thousand pounds of green beans being packed into five-pound sacks by volunteers. “Then they will be picked up by agencies, food pantries, food kitchens, agencies across north Alabama that are feeding the homeless,” says Mary Lynn Botts from the non-profit, faith-based Society of St. Andrew.
The Society and the Food Bank of north Alabama, are working to make sure the beans get to where they can do the most good. For the Society of St. Andrew, saving food that doesn’t meet grocery store standards, is an ongoing effort. “We go out and field glean, and work with farmers and capture large loads such as this. Any opportunity such as this, any opportunity we find where there might be food that otherwise is going to go to a landfill, or left to rot or be turned over, we try to capture,” says Mary Lynn Botts.
The volunteers for this effort come from the city, Leadership Huntsville, Faith Presbyterian Church, Methodist Churches, The United Way, Master Gardeners, even home schooled kids getting in on the worthwhile effort.
“If these green beans were not picked up by us, they would have gone in another dump truck that would have taken them to a landfill,” says Botts. These beans, 20-thousand pounds of them, are going to make good meals for hungry people.