Eggplants, cucumbers, zucchini and squash are just a few of the vegetables ripening at the YMCA’s Sharing the Harvest Community Farm. But with fewer volunteers this season, some of that produce may go to waste.

On Saturday, the Y held its annual Farm to Table Dinner, an event which helps raise money for the farm and the Annual Campaign, a scholarship fund. Before dinner was served, YMCA Director Mike Mahoney mentioned a need for more volunteers at the farm.

“It takes a lot of manpower to run a farm. We have two AmeriCorps staff and one full-time farmer. That leaves us a little short handed, so we rely heavily on volunteers from the community,” said Mahoney.

The produce grown at the Sharing the Harvest farm, which is stretched across nearly five acres of land behind the Y, is donated to 17 food pantries in the region. The volunteer-operated farm has provided fresh produce to the food insecure since 2006.

“We have a lofty goal of 4,000 volunteer visits,” said Mahoney. “While we’re doing well, we’re not quick on track to hit that 4,000.”

Part of the problem is that this summer, the farm lost three major volunteer groups based in New Bedford.

“We usually work with a bunch of youth work groups,” said Emma Rainwater, an AmeriCorps VISTA member who works at the farm. “Three of our groups had their transportation funding cut this year, so we’ve been down about 60 or 70 hours of volunteer time every week for the last two weeks.”

She said that, starting next week, many of the vegetables at the farm will be ripe, and they will need more manpower to harvest all the produce.

“We are badly needing more help,” said Rainwater. “Chances are pretty good that we’ll have some stuff that we won’t be able to harvest.”

Small groups that can volunteer regularly at the farm make a big impact, she said. When a group returns to the farm multiple times, not only will it add to the number of volunteer visits, it saves time because the group will already be aware of processes and procedures.

“They’re better at the work once they’ve done it a couple times, and they know what to expect. And usually groups like that have fun. We work, but we have a good time, too,” said Rainwater.

She said she’s in the process of searching for new recruits as well as looking for possible solutions further down the road. She said the Y is exploring other options like starting a summer college program and finding funding to help transport volunteers.

For now, the farm had a recent addition that will help work flow. Farm organizers launched an Indiegogo campaign last December to help crowd fund an automated wash station. The wash station, which Rainwater described as a “carwash for plants,” arrived this week and will help streamline the harvesting process.

Up until now, vegetables were hand washed after they were picked. She said that shortly after the equipment was installed, they were able to clean 600 pounds of vegetables in eight minutes. She estimates that hand washing that much produce would take about 30 minutes.

Plus, the new piece of equipment frees up more volunteers for harvesting.

While Rainwater described the regular volunteers as “rock stars,” she said the farm will need some assistance getting through the rest of the growing season.