Gleaning awareness

IRVINE — Rows of green crops in the morning sunlight. Shovels and spades caked with soil. A line of workers bent over carrots and strawberries, dropping them into basins with the dirt still on them.

In one of Orange County’s most affluent areas, they were all uncommon sights — especially for those who live in homes with packed refrigerators.

On Wednesday, students from Corona del Mar High School and Andersen Elementary School spent the morning at Incredible Edible Park in Irvine gleaning crops. The Andersen students had been reading about César Chávez, the icon of American farm workers, and they served as laborers for a day to gain a better understanding of his life.

“These people deserve our respect,” said fourth-grade teacher Jeff Qualey, who brought 26 students to the park. “If it wasn’t for them, where would we get our produce from?”

Corona del Mar High’s Anthro Club, a student organization dedicated to human rights, set up the visit along with the Volunteer Center of Orange County — which netted a $7,500 reward for its efforts from Disneyland’s Show Your Character community outreach program.

The Second Harvest Food Bank provided supervisors for the event, with program coordinator Sam Caruthers showing students the ropes of farming.

“OK, all you people from Corona del Mar, grab a shovel,” he told the children. “You’re going to be our main workforce here.”

The two schools joined last week to honor Chavez in another way, as the Anthro Club hosted a hunger banquet for Qualey’s class.

At the banquet, students drew lots to see what kind of meal they would have — with a few sitting at tables and eating Italian food, a slightly larger group making do with burritos, and the majority sitting on the floor and eating rice off banana leaves.

Maria King, 9, was among those dining in style — but she said the event opened her eyes.

“There are probably twice as many people on the floor as there are in the middle class,” she said.