The gleaners have been out in force in recent weeks, scouring the abundant farm fields up-Island and down for sweet potatoes, kale, onions, winter squash and more, gathering up hundreds of pounds of the stuff and distributing it for use by schools, elderly housing and needy families at Thanksgiving time.

They are a hardy, remarkable bunch. Their work began a few short years ago as a novel idea — that some volunteers would go out to the farms, glean what had been left behind in the harvest and turn it into a fresh food supply, free of charge. It was all great fun and interesting and you may well have predicted that the enthusiasm for gleaning would fade, like some kind of trendy food fad. Instead the opposite happened: gleaning caught on and grew. These days a weekly email goes out among the gleaners with information about where the harvest will take place.

Even if you’re not one of them, it’s fun to be on the email list and feel like a gleaner insider. “Meet in peach orchard,” a recent post advised. “Pumpkins, squash, carrots, parsley will be nice additions to meals for seniors, food pantry and low-income housing residents.” Connected to one another through an email chain, the gleaners are a reminder of endurance and self-reliance in the digital age. We picture them traveling from field to field, driving battered vans and pickup trucks, wearing Wellies, old sweaters and fingerless wool gloves.

Perhaps they are a model for the future Vineyard. And if you think that goes a little too far, then instead we can just offer them our gratitude in the week of Thanksgiving for the work they do, harvesting usable produce that might otherwise be plowed under, and helping to feed the Island.

There are many others who do similar, selfless work, such as Betty Burton and her hugely successful Family to Family program which puts together all the makings for a Thanksgiving dinner for hundreds of needy Island families. Hopefully no one will go hungry this week on the Vineyard, but of course the volunteers at the Island Food Pantry, where the number of patrons has been on the rise in recent years, know better. So do the many unsung elves at the Red Stocking Fund, the venerable organization that gathers gifts of warm clothes and new toys for needy Island children every year at Christmastime. As another holiday season begins, Islanders are encouraged to donate to these worthwhile causes, either by volunteering their time or writing a check, however small. It will be appreciated.

Meanwhile, Thanksgiving week arrived this week with a blast of changeable November weather that served as a reminder if we needed it: winter is coming. Early in the week ferries were cancelled as storm-tossed seas swirled and gale-force winds blew the last of the leaves off the trees. The next day the sun came out, temperatures were mild, scallopers in oilskins were back on the ponds and only a light jacket was needed outside. Then fickle November did a classic about face with cold rain (snow on the mainland, mainly west of the turnpike), and more ferry cancellations predicted. Holiday travelers hustled to reach their destinations early.

Closer to home, the hustle was on to get in more firewood, convert an armful of greens from the old inkberry that came down in the storm into a table arrangement, find more butter for the pie crust, onions for the stuffing. To help the hardworking staff put another weekly edition together at the Gazette office in Edgartown. To pause and consider the gleaners as another email landed in the inbox: “We had a phenomenal potato glean on Thursday — 30 eighth graders from Tisbury School, a handful of adult gleaners, and a little extra help from the Morning Glory crew left us with 1,600 pounds of potatoes! Wow.”

And then it was Thanksgiving.

Sending out best wishes to all the Gazette readers near and far for a happy, safe holiday weekend. Please remember, don’t drink and drive.