Food pantry donations get a little fruity
Food pantries are facing a real problem -- demand is at a record high while donations have dwindled. But instead of money, some people are donating the "fruits" of their labor. Caitlan Carroll reports.
Volunteers harvest oranges (Caitlan Carroll/Marketplace)
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Rick Nahmias, organizer of "Big Pick"
Fred Summers, director of operations at SOVA Community Food and Resource Program
Russell Lyon and Grant Gochin
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Food pantries across the country are seeing record demand for their services -- Families looking for help getting by. You pair that with a drop in donations as those who do who have try to hang on to what they've got. And some food pantries are worried about being able to meet the need. Marketplace's Caitlan Carroll reports now that instead of giving money, there are some groups out there donating the "fruits" of their labor.
RICK Nahmias: Woo hoo! Hi guys! Come on up, we're about to do a quick orientation.
CAITLAN CARROLL: A group of about 20 volunteers carrying ladders and baskets surrounds Rick Nahmias, the organizer of an afternoon event called "the Big Pick." They're gathering on a driveway next to a sprawling house. Behind them is a private grove of orange trees. It'll take just a few hours for these volunteers to harvest thousands of oranges.
Nahmias: This began as a neighborhood project. I'd actually get on my bike, and I'd see someone with a tree. And I'd stop and talk to them and said, "Hey, this is what we're doing. Would you be interested in letting us use your tree?"
And if they were, Nahmias would show up with volunteers and pick the tree clean. The group donates all the fruit to a food pantry with three locations in Los Angeles. The pantry's director of operations Fred Summers says this idea couldn't have come at a better time. The pantry's seen demand rise 40 percent over the last year.
FRED SUMMERS: So having the opportunity to, in the next couple of weeks, perhaps, distribute 8,000 or 10,000 pounds of oranges is just a wonderful, wonderful thing.
This helps the food pantry cut back its spending on fresh produce. Instead the money will go toward milk, peanut butter, tuna, other staples. And oranges are packed full of vitamins.
SUMMERS: Many of the people we see who are living on low incomes have very poor diets. Not just that they don't have enough food, but they're eating the wrong foods.
The owners of the trees benefit too. When the fruit doesn't get picked, it rots and attracts coyotes and other critters.
Homeowner Grant Gochin greets volunteers before they head out to his small orange grove. Gochin says this is a simple way to give back. And as a banker at UBS, he sees the need everyday.
GRANT GOCHIN: I see it. I live it. I'm seeing the devastation out there, and it's horrendous.
That sentiment is motivating more volunteers as well. Fruit-picking groups from California to New York use online forums like Craigslist, Twitter and Facebook to find each other. Big Pick volunteer Emily Dell says the idea appealed to her immediately. She can help others, and it's not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
EMILY DELL: You're up there surrounded by the blossoms, smells beautiful and the tree is kind of holding you, and you're grabbing the oranges. It's wonderful.
In Los Angeles, I'm Caitlan Carroll for Marketplace.
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From los angeles, CA, 04/13/2009
If you're interested in this story or this type of hands-on volunteer effort, you'll want to be part of Councilman Greig Smith's 4th Annual Citrus Sunday, on Sunday May 3 in the San Fernando Valley. Our first year, community members picked 26,000 lbs of fruit that was distributed through Valley Interfaith Council's food banks. For more info visit www.CD12.org.
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