Looking for a rewarding volunteering activity? Get outdoors and glean (拾落穗)! Picking fresh, healthy produce that is donated to food banks is a win-win activity. 【小题1】

Gleaning is not a new concept. In 18th-century England, there was a law that provided unharvested crops should be given away to the poor. These days, there is a lot of produce that sits in the fields after harvest. 【小题2】 They will usually plant too much or will leave the produce that looks imperfect. Unfortunately, much of this produce would go unused in the field.

Gleaning offers farm-fresh, healthy food for people concerned about food security. That is where gleaners come in. Gleaning addresses farm waste and food poverty by providing free healthy food straight from farm to table. And today, with a cost of living crisis, there are more hungry people. 【小题3】 In 2017, there were five gleaning groups in the UK, while today there are 25.

Holly, head of the Cornwall Gleaning Group, said that her volunteers send around 300 boxes a week to food banks and community kitchens in her area. 【小题4】 “Any time I go gleaning, I am lifted up. For the volunteers, it’s so good for mental health, getting outside and doing something practical that’s good for the planet,” Holly said.

【小题5】 To make this happen, more groups need to be established with farmers and more people need to volunteer their time to help. This form of helping may soon become common. It is rewarding for volunteers who harvest in the fields and it also offers fresh and nutritious food to those who need it the most.

In my world, from my home in suburban Michigan, I can find cool, clean, refreshing water to drink wherever I want it. At my high schoo1. At the gym. At my grandmother’s house. Anywhere, I take it for granted.

But my view of the world was rocked when I saw a video about why people run. Their motivation was to help children in Kenya without having access to clean water. I could not believe what I saw, like photos of children walking miles to get water, instead of going to schoo1.

What I did believe was that I should do something to help. The opportunity to do so was right in front of me. Someone was organizing people to run the Chicago Marathon. Each runner had to raise more than $1,000 in the race. All the money will go to building toilets, drilling wells—whatever it takes to keep pollutants out of the water in cities and small villages in Africa, and to give people life. I believe that water is life.

I signed up! At 16, I just made the minimum age criteria for running the marathon. I knew I could—and should—raise money to address the environmental problems that disturb the children of developing countries. I had never run more than 7 miles, but I knew that running 26.2 miles would not compare to the pain and suffering those children go through on a daily basis.

It amazes me how much my life has changed. I am grateful to be part of a church community that not only made me aware of the environmental problems Kenya faces but helped me realize how I can make a difference if I put my mind and feet to it.

Since finishing the marathon—my first!—I have started a running group called Sole Sisters helping protect the environment.

After finishing his dinner, Lin Xu opened a WeChat mini-program called "Clear Plate" on his phone and took a picture of the empty plates. He was then awarded 157 credit points after the image was uploaded and recognized by artificial intelligence. The credit points can be used to buy gifts, such as books, cellphones and red wine, or to purchase charity meals donated to children in poor rural areas.

The "Clear Plate" mini-program has become popular among young Chinese. Similar campaigns like an "empty plate challenge" are also on the horizon in many Chinese universities.

"Technological innovation is a good way to reduce food waste," said Liu Jichen. Founder of the start-up that developed the app. The idea popped up at a dinner in 2017, when Liu found that the restaurant owner would give diners who polished off their food a card and offer small gifts after a certain number of cards had been collected. "Everyone who values food is bound to enjoy a sense of gain at a lower cost," Liu mentioned this case, noting that such an idea could potentially be realized online.

He formed a team to work on the project. Yet it was quite a challenge for the AI system to assess whether the uploaded photos showed empty plates. To make the AI system smarter，Liu and his team, assisted by more than 1, 000 others, spent half a year collecting over 100,000 samples from canteens and restaurants across the country and analyzed the data. Dozens of enterprises, institutions and restaurants have contacted the start-up to cooperate on the project. Through the digitalized, visualized mini- program, people can clearly see the good results of saving food, which will effectively reduce food waste. "We hope our efforts can start a new trend among the younger generation, encouraging them to develop the habit of thrift(节约)," Liu said.