01 SEPTEMBER 2020 - ADEL, IOWA: BRUCE THORSEN, right, a volunteer with Eat Greater Des Moines, picks pears from a tree on the side of a rural highway. Volunteers from Eat Greater DSM gleaned pears at the Dallas County Human Services Campus. The pears will be distributed to Des Moines emergency pantries, community centers, and churches. Gleaning is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmers' fields after they have been commercially harvested or gathering crops from fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest. It is an ancient tradition first described in the Hebrew Bible. A spokesperson for Eat Greater DSM said need has skyrocketed this year. In a normal year, they distribute about 300,000 pounds of food. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, they've distributed more than 500,000 pounds of food. PHOTO BY JACK KURTZ