Feed hungry mouths, not the ground
There’s no need to let fruit rot under the tree any more. Just call Community Fruit Havesting.
This is a volunteer organisation where people are given permission to visit private gardens with fruit trees, gather the crop, and give the produce to a good cause.
‘‘It’s basically picking and getting all the fruit that nobody eats and giving it back to people who don’t have access to the fruit.
‘‘I see waste. It’s something that I really, really hate,’’ New Plymouth co-ordinator Remy Zyngfogel said.
Food gathered will go towards the New Plymouth Community Food Bank, Salvation Army, child daycare, or even retirement villages. ‘‘So they can have access to fresh fruit instead of the fruit getting wasted on the floor.’’
Zyngfogel is looking for people to donate fruit.
‘‘Maybe they are overseas during the winter and their tree is producing lots of citrus. So we’ll go and collect them for them. If we get donated jars or sugar then we’ll transform it into marmalade.’’
Community Fruit Harvesting is already operating in several centres around the country including Wellington, Auckland, Wanganui and Christchurch.
‘‘When they set it up in Christchurch, probably after the earthquake, lots of trees were in the red zone and so fruit was lost. People were going into the red zone to get all the fruit.’’
There is already a core group of four volunteers, and more are welcome. ‘‘Some will help me with just picking the fruit and some will help me with preservation of the fruit.’’
He has already dropped off donated grapefruit, lemon and tangerine to the New Plymouth Community Food Bank and the Salvation Army harvested over a recent weekend.
‘‘I know what they’re going to take in a week so I’m not taking more because it will be wasted in a cardboard box otherwise. The more fruit I get the more distributor [points] I’ll try to find.’’
All collection will be made in liaison with the land owner, he said.
‘‘I know at the moment that it’s grapefruit season, and mandarin, lemon season. If people have trees that will blossom later and will give fruit in the summertime we want to hear about it.’’
Contact Community Fruit Harvesting on 021 0856 1600, email pickfruittaranaki@gmail.com or find the group on Facebook.