July 28, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

The fruits of community labor

by Andrea Chang

Standing beside an overgrown grapefruit tree, Ean Warren held a long fruit picker in his hands and carefully prodded the branches. As the bright yellow fruits dislodged and tumbled down, Warren strained to catch them in the small metal basket attached to his picker.

"I forgot what this does to your neck," the environmental biologist said with a laugh. "It's like fishing -- you can't see what you're getting."

It was a sunny Saturday morning, and Warren and five others were gathered in Palo Alto resident Louis Castanier's front yard equipped with ladders, gloves, pickers and boxes as part of Harvest for the Hungry.

The seasonal event, co-sponsored by nonprofit organizations Village Harvest and Valley of Heart's Delight, drew more than 20 volunteers who harvested fruit from local residents' backyards to donate to the needy.

"It's a good thing to do because there's obviously a need," said Curtis Boyles, a retired engineer from Sunnyvale who brought his truck to help carry the fruit. "The only way to get this done is to use volunteers -- they're absolutely necessary."

Whether they came to support a good cause or simply to get some free fruit, the volunteers worked together to harvest as many pounds of fruit from 13 participating backyards. Last year, Village Harvest volunteers harvested 84,000 pounds of fruit from more than 300 homes. In addition to backyard fruit harvesting, the organization also provides education on fruit tree care, harvesting and food preservation.

"We estimate there is 4 million pounds of fruit dropping in backyards in Santa Clara Valley that is being unused," said Joni Diserens, the Village Harvest executive director who founded Harvest for the Hungry three and a half years ago. "What we really want to do is encourage people to think about the hungry in our own communities rather than allowing their fruit to go to waste."

Diserens said she hopes to help the 165,000 people in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties who seek food assistance every month.

After meeting at the Foundation for Global Community in Palo Alto on a recent Saturday morning , Diserens divided the group into four teams. Each was assigned an area to cover: two remained in Palo Alto, while the others harvested in Menlo Park and Los Altos.

Warren's team set out to three houses in Palo Alto.

As the team parked in front of their first stop shortly after 9 a.m., they were greeted by a grapefruit tree large enough to obscure the owner's home. Grapefruits dangled from every branch and some littered the ground. A second grapefruit tree occupied the backyard. Undaunted by the challenge, the team quickly began picking the fruit from the branches; some climbed on ladders, others opted to use the adjustable fruit pickers and one volunteer even climbed up into one of the trees to pick by hand.

Every so often a laugh or "whoops!" rang out, followed by the thumping sound of grapefruits hitting the pavement. Within minutes, the first box was completely filled and in just one hour, the trees were stripped bare of their shiny fruit. The fruit totaled six boxes, or 300 pounds.

Homeowner Louis Castanier, a Stanford research associate, emerged from his house during the harvest and surveyed the group. He said the tree came with the property and was "already pretty big" when he moved in 10 years ago.

"I'm not doing anything with the fruits myself because there are too many," said Castanier, who occasionally juices them. "At least this way, they don't go to waste. It's good for the tree also, to remove the fruits when they're ripe."

Castanier has participated in Harvest for the Hungry a few times before. He tells the group to return in six months, when the tree will be in season again.. He said it is more convenient to ask the volunteers to pick the fruit because the tree's size makes it difficult for him to reach the top.

Retired couple Ed and Celia Freiberg, whose house served as the team's second stop on Saturday, began participating in Harvest for the Hungry after their backyard orange tree grew too big for them to harvest properly.

"Usually we pick them and bring them to the food closet, but three years ago we decided there was just too much for us," Celia said. "We just can't climb up there anymore."

Since the couple can still reach the fruits on the lower branches, they asked the volunteers to only harvest from the top of the tree. Celia said she and her husband eat oranges and drink orange juice from their tree every day.

After the team finished harvesting lemons and oranges from the final house, owned by retired engineer Rosalie Dinkey, they loaded up the boxes -- 14 in all -- and drove back to the Foundation for Global Community around noon. There members from all four teams unloaded and organized their boxes, sampled the fruit and weighed it.

With one ton as the initial goal, the volunteers were thrilled with the final tally: 3,130 pounds, or more than 1.5 tons of assorted fruit including plums, apples, pears and nectarines. The fruit was then divided among Second Harvest Food Bank, Urban Ministry in Palo Alto and the Mountain View Community Service Agency for distribution to seniors on fixed incomes, children of single or low-income families and the homeless.

"I can't do anything about the world situation but I can help locally," said fruit picker and Los Altos marketing administrator Laura MacIvor, who plans to volunteer for Harvest for the Hungry again. "If everybody did one little thing, the changes would be phenomenal." Editorial Intern Andrea Chang can be reached at achang@paweekly.com.

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