Help Pick Local Fruit With Community Fruit Tree Harvest Program

This time of year fruit trees are full of fruit and unfortunately much of it goes to waste.

But there are several fruit tree programs in Seattle that harvest the fruit and deliver it to local food banks, meal programs and shelters.

One of these is City Fruit, which we profiled last year on the blog.

Another program is called Community Fruit Tree Harvest, and is a project of Solid Ground's Lettuce Link program, which encourages lower income families in Seattle to grow their own food and become educated on children's nutrition, among several focuses of the program. 

Community Fruit Tree Harvest is looking for volunteers to harvest the fruit at work parties, scout trees in your neighborhood for ripeness, and deliver harvested fruit to various organizations in the city.

If this sounds of interest to you,  Lettuce Link is having a volunteer orientation tomorrow from 6:30-7:30pm at the NE Library.

Community Fruit Tree Harvest picks plums, pears, apples, Asian pears, and grapes in Ballard, NE Seattle, Central Seattle, Capitol Hill, NE Seattle, and Wallingford.

Last year from July through September, Community Fruit Tree Harvest volunteers harvested more than 19,600 pounds of apples, plums and pears from Seattle fruit trees and delivered it to people with limited access to organic produce, says their website. "Harvesting this fruit depends on significant community support."

The fruit was delivered to more thna 63 organizations, including food banks shelters, senior centers and meals programs in the area.

If you’re unable to attend the volunteer orientation tomorrow night, or have more fruit that you need, contact Sadie at fruitharvest@solid-ground.org or 206-694-6751.