Gleaning

Story originally found by nebbyjen  - just an incredible story, and it happened in Denver, Colorado and even got picked up by the Sydney, Australia newspaper:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/glean-times-call-for-desperate-measures/2008/11/25/1227491548629.html

 EXCERPT:

GLEANING is as old as the Bible and as new as the economic tidal wave that has broken across the United States. It is the practice of gathering by hand the crops left in paddocks after harvest.

On a small family farm in Colorado on Saturday 40,000 people showed up to scour the fields for onions, potatoes, beets, pumpkins and carrots.

Joe and Chris Miller expected 5000-10,000 people. Instead, the first cars arrived at their 240-hectare property near Platteville, 50 kilometres north of Denver, before dawn. By 8.30am the makeshift car park was full. The queue for "hay ride" carts to the fields quickly grew to 30 metres wide and 100 metres long

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Gotta admit it's an incredibly 'feel good' story, but also a really sad one to see that many people show up looking for food.