The following a press release:
City Fruit is calling tree owners in South King County to join its growing fruit sharing community as the organization prepares for its first major Harvest outside Seattle. Earlier this year City Fruit announced its biggest expansion to date to commemorate its 10th anniversary. As part of the Harvest for All expansion campaign now City Fruit not only serves all neighborhoods in the City of Seattle but also is expanding beyond the city borders to some South King County communities including Seatac, Burien, Renton, Des Moines, Tukwila and Kent.
City Fruit is a non-profit organization whose mission is to put urban fruit trees to their best and fullest use so that everyone in the community shares in the value of fruit. Each year the organization harvests tens of thousands of pounds of fruit and share the vast majority of it with more than 50 food banks and community partners across the City. Last year City Fruit harvested more than 34,000 pounds of fruit and nearly 20,000 pounds of it was donated to food banks. Some of the rest was also sold to local restaurants and pressed to make City Fruit Cider by Seattle Cider Company.
Harvests in the South King County cities will be conducted in partnership with the International Rescue Committee. The IRC’s New Root program focuses on food access and the nutritional needs of families upon arrival in the U.S., and builds on the agricultural experience of many new refugee and immigrant families by providing access to land, materials, and education for program participants to grow healthy food. Through this partnership City Fruit will train the IRC gardeners who will be the primary harvesters in South King County, while City Fruit will manage tree owner outreach, tree registrations and data management. For their service the harvested fruit will be donated back to the IRC gardeners and they will get to decide how the fruit will be used.
Residents with fruit trees in those South King County communities can participate in the Harvest this year by becoming a City Fruit member and registering their trees at www.cityfruit.org. By sharing their fruit the South King County tree owners can help build strong community that empowers its newest members and help them make a meaningful connection to their new home.
