how to retrieve field collection data associated with a node I have an event node which contains a reference to a gallery field collection. If I do a dump of the $variables variable, I can find this

$variables -&gt; field_gallery_image['und'][0]['value']


but I don't know where to use that value to do a table look up to actually find the data in the field collection. I was able to find that id number in the field_collection_item table, and then was able to find that id in the field_data_field_image table (I have an image field), but I'm not sure where to go from here.
I believe you are looking for field_collection_item_load or field_collection_item_load_multiple function both are in field_collection.module