Fields of Grace was established in April 2006 as a ministry at West Side Church in Richland, WA. The program began when Second Harvest voiced a need for fresh produce for area food banks and area farmers wanted to donate a portion of their crops, but lacked the resources to pick the additional produce. Fields of Grace was created to provide the hands of service that pick the fruits and vegetables for residents in need. After reading a newspaper article about the effort, a local farmer, Gary Middleton, agreed to be the liaison between Fields of Grace and the area’s farming community.

A training program was developed to teach volunteers proper gleaning etiquette. Gary Middleton was instrumental in providing gleaning “do’s and don’ts”. All volunteers must go through a training program and sign a liability waiver before they can participate in a gleaning activity.

Since its inception, the ministry has trained over 1,000 volunteers who have logged over 14,000 hours of service to harvest over 1.7 million pounds of produce. This produce has included apples, sweet corn, carrots, sweet cherries, apricots, plums, grapes, tomatoes, potatoes, and more.