Fruit Harvesting and Foodie Event weekend!

 Last Saturday was an amazing day in the fruitworld! We started the day with a great group of volunteers harvesting 400lbs of valencia oranges in Northridge and then participated in LA’s first Food Rendezvous in Venice, CA! It was great to see some of our friends from the Garden School Foundation, Community Services Unl…imited, Slow Food LA, LA Farm Girl and sample all of the incredible food made by local artisans. Our candied lemons peels and 2nd vintage preserved lemons were a big hit and we look forward to participating in this event again. A big thanks again to Laurie & Dominique for inviting us!

Launch of LA’s first Food Rendezvous!

Food Forward is excited to participate in LA’s first Food Rendezvous – this coming Saturday 8/28 from 4-10pm in Venice.  It’s a gathering for Local Food Lovers and we will have our 2nd vintage of Preserved Meyer Lemons and our Candied Lemon Peels on sale! Come join the fun and meet other local food lovers!
At Sparc in the historic 1920s “old Venice jail house”… and its adjoining parking lots
685 Venice Blvd
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.thefoodrendezvous.com/

Purchase tickets http://www.eventbrite.com/event/780764287?ref=elink

Team Moorpark baggin grapefruits…

Last Saturday, Ryan lead an amazing team of Moorpark High School volunteers who helped bag over 8,300lbs of juicy grapefruits in just 2 hours at Burney’s Ranch which was then shared between Catholic Charities of Moorpark & MEND Poverty in Pacoima! A huge thanks to all the volunteers who came out and to our incredibly generous & gracious host Mr. Burney… Go Team Moorpark!!!

Summer Fruit Harvesting in Full Swing

July has been a busy month for our volunteer fruit loops as we are in the middle of the peak summer fruit season (valencia oranges, peaches, plums, etc.) with the calls from homeowners not wanting to see their fruit go to waste increasing!

In the last 2 weeks, we have harvested thousands of pounds of fresh fruit from homes in Hancock Park, Winnetka, Granada Hills and Studio City.

Quick Reminder:  Our 4th Volunteer Meet n’ Greet is this coming Tuesday 7-27-10 at MEND Poverty.

Food Forward is now 18 months old! We have achieved many amazing accomplishments that we would love to share with you. To get a chance to catch up, meet you all, introduce you to some of the work we are doing, and ways you can be involved with us, we are holding our fourth Volunteer Meet n’ Greet at MEND Poverty, one of our receiving partner pantries, this coming Tuesday, July 27, 2010.  

MEND is located at 10641 N. San Fernando Rd., Pacoima, CA 91331

We’ll start off promptly at 7pm with a short tour of this amazing facility dedicated to alleviating hunger and poverty in the community through food distribution and offering a wide range of supportive services and then give you the lowdown on Food Forward, what we are up to, what is happening in our second year of operation. We will talk about volunteer needs we have currently, get your ideas and answer any questions about how we work and how your energy can be added to our work feeding LA’s hungry.

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Stay tuned for our upcoming Fresh Juice which will be loaded with juicy harvests & events coming up in August!

Hope to see you all in a tree very soon…

“Social Action Shabbat” at Friday Night Live

Food Forward is excited to be participating in “Social Action Shabbat” at Friday Night Live, sponsored by ATID of Sinai Temple on July 9th at 7:30pm. For those who don’t know, FNL is a musical service filled with great spirit and soul. Led by Rabbi David Wolpe, Craig Taubman, and the FNL band, this service regularly attracts 800-1000 people every month and has been emulated across the country. Food Forward will be one of the many organizations to have an information table to promote the good work we do. We would love to have as many of you join us at the service as we want to celebrate your contribution as we celebrate Shabbat. Following the service there will be a Kiddush for the entire congregation and a private after-party in the ATID LOUNGE for young professionals ages 21-39 to mix and mingle over a lite buffet and lemon drop martinis (IDs required).

We thank you in advance for helping us to promote this event and the work we do to your friends and colleagues.

See you at Sinai! (10400 Wilshire Blvd., LA, CA 90024 at Beverly Glen)

The start of Summer Citrusmania!

Over the weekend, Food Forward volunteers harvested over 3,000lbs of mixed citrus in Northridge and Granada Hills all to feed the hungry! The energy and committment of our volunteers and leadership never cease to amaze and we truly appreciate everyone coming out to help with the start of summer fruit rescue, especially those who drove up to help from San Ramon and Long Beach…

A few spots still available for a pick this Weds 6/16 in Northridge – email marie@foodforward.org for details.

Look forward to seeing you all in a tree soon!

Congrats to CNN Hero Gary at AmpleHarvest.org!

A BIG Congratulations to CNN Hero Gary Oppenheimer at AmpleHarvest.org! Gary is a big supporter/fan of Food Forward and we sincerely appreciate your support and friendship! http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2010/05/20/cnnheroes.oppenheimer.profile.cnn

AmpleHarvest.org enables your neighbors in need to get garden fresh produce that might otherwise be wasted.

Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive & MEND Poverty

A huge thank you to an amazing group of Food Forward volunteers who came out on Saturday to the Sherman Oaks post office and to MEND Poverty to help support the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive! We helped sort, box & load over 10,000lbs of food brought in by the Sherman Oaks mail carriers and are still waiting for the final… total of food donated to MEND in just one day (definitely over 100,000lbs)… A big thanks to Sonia at the Sherman Oaks Post Office and to Rich, Luke and the entire MEND team for letting us be a part of an amazing day!

Juicy Fruit Express – a Loooong but Successful Adventure

“Adventure” was probably the key word that can describe the FF crew’s day on Saturday when we ventured in a veggie oil-powered bus out to Bako to pick a hundred-plus tree property.  We’ll opt for the less-eco-friendly model next time  (15mph up the Grapevine grade was a wee bit too much even for us hardcore eco-folk) but the time spent getting to and from our location was rewarded with amazing weather, great trees and a spectacular mountain top lunch put together by our host Chris and Jody and their great family – And to keep it all in perspective, 3200 lbs of beautiful Valencia oranges were harvested by our crew – all staying local and 100% going to the Kern County Food Pantry. Thanks to everyone who picked with us.

We even made it on the local ABC affiliate : http://www.turnto23.com/news/23120221/detail.html

Thanks to Dusty Stiles for contributing his photos and to Erica, Marie and Carl for pulling it all off!

Looking for fruit trees in LA!

If you live in LA and have healthy fruit trees (or in a neighborhood that does), please get in touch with us as Food Forward will participate in Big Sunday on May 1st and 2nd – the LARGEST volunteer event in all of Southern California.

We will be harvesting fruit trees in neighborhoods across LA, so we invite you, your friends, family and/or neighbors to take part in this incredible event by being a FRUIT DONOR.

What does it entail? You just sit there while a few of our (fully insured) volunteers do all the work of picking, schlepping and hauling – Sure you might offer us some lemonade or an off color joke to keep our spirits up, but honestly all you need to do is agree to take part and you will received a TAX DONATION RECEIPT for EVERY POUND WE HARVEST. Quite the deal, we know, so don’t tell too many people…better yet, tell everyone including your neighbors!

More importantly, please call us at 818-530-4125 or email Erica our Harvesting/Property Coordinator at erica@foodforward.org – to let us know you are on-board – and while you are at it, check out the great work we do and numerous press stories on us at our website: FOODFORWARD.ORG.

You will be proud to be part of our growing family of FRUITANTHROPISTS – now over 150 strong and growing weekly!