TIFTON — A group of volunteers gathered at a farm in Chula Friday morning to glean strawberries to donate to those who are in need.

The Society of Saint Andrew is a national nonprofit that was formed about 37 years ago by two Methodist ministers who saw an opportunity to get fresh produce from local farms to people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to it.

Sandi Newman, South Georgia program coordinator, said that gleaning is one of the ways they obtain produce. “That’s mainly what we do in this area,” Newman said.

The society has had an office in Tifton since 2007, and Newman has been in Tifton for the past two years.

Farms and packing houses donate produce that isn’t deemed good enough for sale in grocery stores and would otherwise be thrown away or left in the field to rot. Newman said that they recently picked up 15,000 pounds of collard greens that had been harvested and turned down as not marketable.

“They have two options. They can either dump it in the field, feed it to cattle, or they can call us, and thank God they call us,” Newman said.

The farmer who allowed them to glean from his fields wished to remain anonymous.

“He’s a very generous donor,” said Newman. “He’s a good Christian man and he believes in what we’re doing. He wants to feed people with what he’s growing, and that what we find with most farmers. They’re proud of what they do and they work hard to grow food so they don’t want to dump it in the woods, but the market calls for perfect produce.”

The produce is donated to agencies like Ruth’s Cottage and Brother Charlie’s Rescue Center as well as being distributed in the community for families and individuals to come and take what they need.

Newman said that they have a list of people who they know are struggling that they call when they have produce.

She said that many in the community just can’t afford fresh produce.

“They go right through the produce section,” she said. “They skip the good, nutritious food.”

She said they also try to get those who need the produce to come and glean as well.

“With strawberries and with gleaning, we don’t get a lot,” said Newman. “We don’t get thousands of pounds like we do with the donations, so for things like this we put them in plastic bags and take them to places like Tift Towers and Westhaven Senior Community.”

They also give gleanings to Meals on Wheels.

“Our biggest problem is awareness,” Newman said. “We’re here for truckloads, we’re here for a couple of bins of produce, we’re here if they have something in the field and they’re not going to go after it. We want to work with them and homeowners who have citrus trees or fruit trees.”

They will take extra produce from family gardens as well.