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…

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!

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!

Tripleheader Fruit Picking Weekend

An amazing tripleheader of fruit picks last weekend brings in over 2,000 lbs of fresh fruit (valencia oranges, mandarin oranges, grapefruit, lemons, limes & persimmons) and garden herbs (rosemary, basil and oregano) all to feed LA’s hungry! We harvested trees in Glendale, Studio City and Granada Hills and had over 40 volunteers join us so a BIG thanks to all who picked with us… We look forward to seeing you at the BIG PICK 3 this coming Sunday 12/13 at the CSUN Orange Grove! Please keep telling your friends, family and co-workers who might have fruit trees about Food Forward as we do need more trees… THANKS!

Food Forward tops 60,000 lbs!

What an amazing Food Forward pick we had last Sunday in Granada Hills. It was a perfect day in a beautiful, two row, 16 tree orange orchard. And together, we harvested 1,789 lbs of oranges!

This brings Food Forward’s YTD total to 60,649 pounds of fresh fruit
gleaned and donated to our local food pantries to feed families in need!

A huge thanks to all 20 volunteers who came, helped and celebrated Food Forward pushing over 60,000 lbs this year…

Abundant Citrus in Granada Hills!

Thanks to all the volunteers who picked with us today at a beautiful property in Granada Hills with abundant citrus. This neighborhood is a citrus haven – we will be back 🙂

Come join us this week: Wed 6/17 in Canoga Park – 5:30pm – our last mini-pick before the BIG PICK 2! THE BIG PICK 2 will be held SUNDAY JUNE 28th, 2009 from 9-4 pm at Cal State University Northridge in their old growth orchard of over 300 orange trees. Space is limited – Email info@foodforward.org or call 818.530.4125 to rsvp –

Hope to see you on June 28th!