Wasted Backyard Fruit Serves the Community
17 Mar 2008
You’ve got a tree in your yard. It bears fruit. You eat as much as you can and then you get to the point where you hope you never have to eat anymore. What a waste!
That’s what Natasha Boissier thought as she walked her neighborhood. She saw front yard littered with splattered fruit. Perfectly good fruit that folks were tired of. Fruit that rotted on limbs because no one picked it.
Bossier formed North Berkeley Harvest to solve the problem. Her group picks all that unwanted fruit. Then they donate it to homesless shelters, food banks, after school programs, and so forth. She has an agreement with the Chez Panisse Foundation, so some of the fruit ends up in school lunch programs.
A couple of weeks ago, Bossier set out with some volunteers. In just a couple of hours they collected about 150 pounds of fruit.
The group works mainly in the Oakland, Berkeley, and Contra Costa County. They provide a service to homeowners who don’t have the time or inclinations to pick fruit, they keep the sidewalks clean of the unwanted messes, and they feed the poor. Just a couple of days a month but awhole lot of good gets done.
