02yearend2

A HELPING HAND
With her 7-month-old daughter, Glory, in tow, Donna Tolbert heads up a row with an empty bucket to collect tomatoes picked by her daughters Grace, 6, left, Charity, 8, right, and her husband, Wade, at a Ruskin farm. During their first week of volunteering with the Gleaners, the Tolberts picked tomatoes twice and green beans once. “It’s something my whole family can do,” Donna said.

STEFANIE BOYAR: This photo was taken as part of a story about the Gleaners of Hillsborough County, a service group that organizes the harvest of surplus produce and donates it to help feed the hungry. The Tolbert family was among the volunteers who arrived that sweltering May morning to pick the tomatoes that were too ripe to be harvested commercially. Donna Tolbert got a calling to help feed the hungry and brought along her husband and her four girls, Charity, Grace, Praise and Glory, to help. Not wanting to leave anyone out of the joy of helping others, Donna carted baby Glory on her back in a sling as she trudged through the muddy rows. It was a tender moment of an entire family working together to help others.