Fruits of the City – Fruit Gleaning

What is gleaning? It is the act of collecting or gathering unharvested, unused, or leftover food. In our case, this is fruit, predominately apples.

Hundreds of fruit trees are already growing in Twin Cities backyards and public spaces.  Many of them produce more fruit than their owners can manage to eat, pick, or preserve.  Waste fruit can be a burden to compost, while attracting pests. 

Fruits of the City Gleaning program matches “donated” trees with groups of trained volunteers, who pick the fruit. Volunteers take home some of the fruit they pick, and deliver the rest to local food shelves. 

Twelve food banks across the Twin Cities received gleanings from Fruits of the City in 2009. Food shelves are typically stocked with canned and packaged goods, and are delighted to be able to offer fresh fruit to their patrons. Service Director Amy Michael of Summit University Living at Home/Block Nurse Program noted that her clients, many of them isolated seniors, were so grateful to have the fresh fruit donated by this program.

Homeowners love the program as well. In October 2008, we started with just one tree. The owner told us,

“The apples are ripe right now, and …there are tons falling on the ground constantly.  I’ve already made many apple crisps out of it and that can’t even begin to put a dent in it.  I would love to have the tree picked!  I feel like it’s such a waste ’cause I’m just raking it up constantly every week and sending the stuff to compost. I’d be thrilled if people came and picked all the apples off it.”

We went to her house to glean, and, in about 90 minutes, we picked 100 pounds of apples, which we delivered to Sharing Korner food shelf in St. Paul. 

Would you like to volunteer as a gleaner? Do you have a tree that needs picking? Register through Volunteer Hub!

In 2010, we plan to have weekly gleanings to be held Tuesday evenings throughout the summer and fall, as well as some Saturday gleanings.

If you are interested in supporting Fruits of the City as a corporate or foundation sponsor, please contact Josh Grinolds at jgrinolds@mnproject.org or Dave Glenn at dglenn@mnproject.org.