Our work
Talking to growers
Short, direct and specific. Growers have a farm to run.
The approach to a farm is the piece of this work that has to be right. Pairs draft each email from the template, and the Outreach Editor reads every one before it is sent. The organization has a standard way of doing it.
We open by saying who we are: students at a named school chapter of The Neighbour’s Table. We ask one question, always in the same words: Do you have surplus or grade-out produce this season that you cannot sell? The subject line is fixed, the email is signed with the school’s street address, and it ends with the STOP line. The whole message fits on a phone screen.
We never call a farm’s produce waste. It is food that was grown well and found no buyer. A Follow-up Clerk sends the single follow-up on day 14 and then closes the record. The answer is recorded either way.
Ask once. Ask clearly.
Our work
Talking to growers is one part of the work, alongside keeping the record and arguing publicly for a food system that wastes less. The work section sets out all of it.
See our work
What happens
Ask, introduce, record. What we do explains how a farm’s yes is handed to an organization that collects it with its own vehicle, and who does each step.
Read what we do
Surplus produce
Growers know what surplus is better than anyone. For everyone else, this page explains why good food goes unsold: a contract falls through, a specification changes, or a harvest comes in heavier than the market wanted.
About surplus produce
