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!

Citrus and Turtles in Woodland Hills

Last night, Food Forward loops harvested 263lbs of grapefruit, oranges & apples from a home in Woodland Hills – our very first with turtles, who seem to enjoy the fruit as much as we do 🙂

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…

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!

Big Pick #7 Results Are In!

Big Pick #7 results are in!! This morning at CSUN’s Orange Grove, just over 4500 lbs were harvested by FF volunteers, all going in to the hands of those in need in the coming days! A HUGE thank you to everyone who volunteered out in the heat today!

New Fruits and lots of juice!

The last few weeks, our fruit loops have been busy harvesting fruit, fruit and more fruit all over Los Angeles to help feed the hungry and June is off to a great start!

Just before Memorial Day, we had a huge harvesting weekend in Northridge & Sylmar which brought in over 2,000lbs of grapefruit, oranges & lemons… The fruit loops were off for the long holiday weekend and then back in Sherman Oaks this past week for more grapefruits.

Today was Day 1 of our juicy fruit weekend bonanza with JF & CQ harvesting our very first blood oranges (Sylmar) and apples (Reseda), and more lemons & grapefruits bringing in a total of 526lbs going today to MEND!

Just a little warm up for the BIG PICK #7 tomorrow at CSUN!

A BIG thanks to all the volunteers who join us on our weekly picks and support us in so many ways and we look forward to seeing you all in a tree soon!

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!

Easter Sunday Fruit Hunt!

Our Easter Sunday fruit hunt in Chatsworth brings in 175lbs of tangerines & tangelos! A wonderful start to spring and a month full of fruit harvests to help feed the hungry…

New Pick Added in Chatsworth on 2/27!

A bew pick was just added this coming Saturday, 2/27 @ 10:30AM in Chatsworth! We will be harvesting 2 beautiful tangelo trees so please  RSVP to marie@foodforward.org if you are ready to pick some juicy citrus.