Jill Kaufman

On a recent morning in western Massachusetts, a dozen volunteers are in a field picking gorgeous heads of romaine lettuce.

They are gleaning or clearing the field of what farmers don't need.

Organizations like Rachel's Table get tens of thousands of pounds of produce a year over to food banks.

They have a van, but also depend on volunteers like Jean Gordon to make deliveries.

In the last few weeks, she was picking cabbages and apples.

You know, with everybody like tight up on food, I can take stuff.

I know people.

Other organizations that glean farm fields say they've heard a lot of anxiety from food pantries about having enough items to distribute over the last few weeks and whether they'll have enough going forward.

For NPR News, I'm Jill Kaufman.