Community Harvest SRQ (CHSRQ) is best known for its iconic food-recovery programs that keep delicious, nutritious, locally grown produce from going to waste. When you talk about gleaning with Program Director Andrew Hudson, you see that these programs aren’t just about volunteers working for the good of the earth—the work is also for the good of the people.
“There’s been a huge shift over the 15 years CHSRQ has been in existence,” Hudson says. “When we started, we had to convince people that climate change was happening. I no longer find that need in the audiences I talk to now. Now, I need to convince people that there is something we can do … and there’s actually a lot we can do.”
A native of Portland, OR, Hudson managed a food pantry and led gardening programs there in his 20s. After moving to Sarasota, he spent 15 years with his hands in the earth at Jessica’s Organic Farm. Answering his next calling—to study at the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, IN—was not so much a pivot as it was a quantum leap toward his readiness to champion the mission of CHSRQ.
“Community is the key word there in ‘Community Harvest’ because community is central to what we do to ‘unleash collective genius,’” Hudson says. “And community is central to not only the practice of being Mennonite, but the spirituality of being Mennonite. We see God in community, not just in individuals.”
Hudson credits the idea of “unleashing collective genius” to Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Network and the Transition Towns movement currently spanning 67 countries. Projects in renewable energy, food security, economic development, urban greening, and mutual aid are all hallmarks of Transition Towns. Originally conceived as Transition Sarasota, CHSRQ recently rebranded as Community Harvest to emphasize its work within the local foodshed.
“The Transition movement fosters local, positive responses to global economic, environmental, and societal issues,” Hudson says. “I think this positivity fits the culture of Sarasota, and CHSRQ primarily works to offer programs that people can be enthusiastic and hopeful about.”
He continues: “When you get interesting people together, and they’re happy and feeling good, they have interesting conversations. We’re not just trying to accomplish food-rescue goals; we’re also trying to create social space where collective genius can emerge—and you never know what’s going to come out of that. There might be new responses to the crises that are on everybody’s mind.”
That spirit of collective genius gets supercharged during CHSRQ’s annual Eat Local Week (November 1–9, 2025). With the theme “Rooted in Our Local Foodshed,” this year’s festival features farm-to-table dinners, a fermentation workshop, a food forest tour, a guided ethnobotany walk, and much more. The whole community is invited to participate in cultivating resilience and harvesting hope.
