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A Nudge From Polly: Husband Still Gleaning

Tribune photo by JAY CONNER

Gene Shewfelt looks over at a picture of his wife Polly during an interview at his Seffner home.

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 16, 2009

SEFFNER - It was always Gene and Polly, Polly and Gene.

"Loved her since I first saw her at the skating rink," Gene Shewfelt says.

She was 18, he was 20, when he got a glimpse of the comely brunette gliding by him at the old Coliseum on Davis Islands.

Her real name was Harriet. But her cheerful demeanor and optimistic nature reminded people of Pollyanna. The nickname stuck.

They had 60 years together, a union that would lead to six great-grandchildren. When Polly died on Aug. 22 at age 80, the world pretty much stopped for her other half.

Gene grieved for months. He didn't know what to do with himself. The gap in his life was as big as the hole in his heart.

Then came the nudge. Gene says it was from God, but he knows Polly had a hand in it.

He would return to the work he and Polly used to do together, before she got sick and his health faltered. He would go back to the orange groves and tomato fields, gathering the fruits and vegetables left behind after the harvest.

The work would fill the silence and feed the hungry. And, perhaps, it could help him heal.

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Glean vb 1) to gather grain left by reapers

Gene Shewfelt, 83, spirit restored and energy lifted, feels like a contributing human being again.

Despite severe arthritis in his back and a diabetic condition that requires four insulin injections a day, he has renewed vigor. He owes it to his volunteer work as field manager for the Hillsborough Gleaners of the Society of St. Andrew.

"When you do for others, it takes your mind off yourself," he says.

This is growing season, a busy time for gleaners. Volunteers - mainly from religious congregations - check the organization's Web site for gleaning dates. An orange grove in Odessa one week, a tomato farm in Ruskin another. When rows of strawberries burst red and plump in Plant City, they draw the gleaners.

It's a three-way program. Farmers and landowners offer the crops they don't plan to harvest, and the gleaners pick the fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. They pack them in boxes and deliver them to recipients including food banks, homeless shelters and nursing homes.

Gleaning is a biblically based concept that dates back to the Old Testament, referenced in several Scriptures. Gene's favorite is the story of Ruth, a young, poor widow working in the fields of a rich man named Boaz. He fell in love with her and ordered that she be treated well.

"Don't pick everything in my fields," he also commanded. "Leave a portion for Ruth, for the poor and for the helpless."

It's a story with a good ending. Boaz and Ruth eventually married, and their son Obed grew up to be the grandfather of King David.

Polly, a deeply Christian woman, had read about gleaning for the poor in the Bible. When she was in her mid-60s, her life quieter after raising three children and working as a nurse at Tampa General Hospital, she suggested to Gene they try it.

Problem was, not many people knew the term.

So she and Gene, a retired accountant and part-time photographer, promoted the idea to churches and synagogues, service clubs and schools. They went to farmers and packinghouses and made their pitch.

In 1995, with a handful of volunteers from their home church, First Baptist of Dover, they started Gleaners of Hillsborough County, aligning forces with the Society of St. Andrew, a nonprofit that networks gleaning groups around the country. Since the national group's inception in 1983, it has saved more than 564 million pounds of fresh food that would have gone to waste, providing 1.6 billion servings to the hungry.

Gene provided the muscle. He drove the truck and hoisted boxes of oranges and flats of strawberries. His favorite part was making the deliveries and seeing the joy on the recipients' faces.

Polly, he says, was the brains and the heart of the ministry. Once shy and demure, she blossomed when leading her troops into the fields. She was the daughter of a dairy farmer and grew up in Tampa's once-rural countryside. She felt at home working in the earth.

"My mom found her purpose when she found gleaning," says daughter Carol O'Brien. "She told me it was one of the most important things she had done in her life. She saw it as a way to live her faith and make a real impact on people's lives."

In 1999, the Shewfelts were named J.C. Penney Co.'s regional volunteers of the year. They gave their $1,000 prize to the Society of St. Andrew. And in 2001, Polly was named the Woman of Distinction by the Soroptimist Club of Tampa. Gene proudly shows off the awards displayed in the living room of the house they shared for 38 years.

He still has the hand-penciled records on stacks of yellowed ledger pages detailing their gleans around the state. They kept at it for eight years, taking on about 60 or 70 projects annually. At one point, they had as many as 250 volunteers.

He estimates the Hillsborough gleaners picked more than 1 million pounds of fruits and vegetables. All of it went to combat hunger.

"You just feel good doing it. It's a hands-on ministry," says longtime volunteer Gene Williams of Brandon. "You get to fellowship with people who share your desire to help, and you know someone is going to benefit from what you're doing out there."

But age started taking a toll on the Shewfelts. Polly became resistant to the antibiotics she needed to ward off infections. Gene's back problems and diabetes worsened. In 2003, they resigned.

One woman took over for a few months, then another for a few years. But without the one-two punch of its dedicated founders, the ministry lost its far-flung clout and connections. Volunteers dropped out and projects were smaller, usually confined to backyard gleans of homeowners. Then, it just petered out.

They say God works in mysterious ways.

About the time Gene was getting the divine nudge to get back into life, Margie Lewis of Lakeland became a part-time paid staff member of the statewide Society of St. Andrew.

Gene had contacted the nonprofit's office about his interest in returning. And Lewis needed a field coordinator for Hillsborough County.

"Getting Gene back with his enthusiasm and knowledge was a real plus," she says. "He has so much to teach us."

But first things first: He needed a truck.

God would provide, he reasoned. And in November, his prayers were answered when a fellow church member gave him the keys to a 1990 Toyota pickup. Gene was back in the gleaning ministry.

On a Saturday morning earlier this month, Gene waited at a small grove of citrus trees in Land O' Lakes to see who would show up at 2009's first glean. Lewis had posted the destination on the Web site and sent out a mass e-mail to the volunteer list. They were to meet at the stand of 35 trees owned by a private community of seven residents.

Five, 10, 18 and finally 27 people came. They worked four hours, bagging up 2,505 pounds of tangelos. Volunteers loaded up the boxes and delivered them to Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa, Nativity Food Bank in Brandon and retirement homes in Plant City.

"Awesome," says Richard Konnen Sr., the homeowner who contacted the gleaners. "If they don't do this, the fruit drops all over the ground, drawing ants, possums, 'coons, you name it. It stinks and it's a waste of good food. What they do is amazing."

Gene hears this all the time. It still brings a smile to his face.

The health issues haven't gone away. His return won't be for the long haul. Gene's main goal is to find a replacement volunteer field manager, someone who shares the passion he and Polly brought to gleaning for so many years.

He knows she's watching, and she's happy he's back. He's reminded of the country song played at her funeral called "There's Holes in the Floor of Heaven." She's peering down from that opening and sending her love.

"God may be my inspiration," he says softly, "but Polly, she's the spark plug. Yes, she is."

See the gleaners at work on Michelle's "Keeping the Faith" segment today at 9 a.m. on WFLA-TV. To learn more about the Society of St. Andrew, go to TBO.com, Keyword: Gleaners. For information on the Hillsborough Gleaners, call (813) 689-8621. Reporter Mic

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