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!

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!

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!

A Great Weekend in Fruitland

We are just coming off our first weekend of spring and can’t thank all the folks who came to support us on the many FF fronts we had:  Byron started with a small but sweet pick on Friday with 131 lbs of oranges, soon followed by Scott Daigre and the TOMATOMANIA crew who warmly welcomed us to their event where we SOLD OUT of the First Vintage of FF’s  Preserved Meyer Lemons in just a day and a half – for those of you lucky folks who got them – enjoy them or “put them up” as the collectors item they now are.  (Email us for Emily’s fantastic crab salad recipe – or send in recipes of your own when you put them to use – we’d love to hear from you.)

Also on Saturday, Erica had an a great pick with CAUSECAST’s crew which yielded over 800 lbs of oranges to MEND.  Causecast wrote up a very flattering blog post about the event which you can see leading off the IMPACT Section of the Huffington Post today! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-daniel-harris/fixing-americas-hunger-cr_b_516561.html A Big thanks to Heidi and Kristen for organizing the pick and another big thanks to all at Causecast for coming out.

Then Sunday, Capt. Carl and I had two great groups in tandem on which yielded well over 1500lbs combined for SOVA – final tally still to come.  The massive 40 foot grapefruit tree I tackled with my small by very able bodied crew was dedicated to Dawn and Charles – two core FF volunteers and spirits – who are moving north and who we will dearly miss! Thanks to everyone who came out and participated, tabled and picked.

Please check below for FRESH JUICE – a month of citrus is just around the corner  :))

Winter fruit harvesting in Sunny LA!

Sunday’s fruit picks in Northridge and Valley Glen yield 781lbs of fresh navel oranges, lemons, grapefruit and tangerines to help feed LA’s hungry! Thanks to all the volunteers who came out with great energy – it was a beautiful winter day for fruit harvesting 🙂

BIG PICK 3 @ CSUN’s Orange Grove is coming up on 1/31/10 – a few spots remain – RSVP carl@foodforward.org

Interested in leadership opportunities with Food Forward? We have a winter full of small & BIG picks and would love your help! Email info@foodforward.org to learn more….

BIG PICK 3 IS ON!!

Join FOOD FORWARD Sunday December 13th for the last Big Pick of 2009

This will be  a 4 hour marathon session (9am-1pm) of picking oranges at CSUN’s historic orange grove alongside CSUN Hillel students and other CSUN community members.

Space is VERY LIMITED and you MUST RSVP to carl@foodforward.org to reserve your spots.

Please note: since much of the fruit is high up in the trees we are discouraging families with small children this time out – sorry, more kid-friendly picks coming in 2010 – we promise!

Sweet Oranges in Northridge!

Last Sunday we had a two-home pick in Northridge  which yielded 648 lbs of some of the sweetest oranges! Thank you, volunteers, for being so ready and willing to glean the impromptu trees as well as the planned ones!

Just wanted to let all of you know that all of the November picks (except the Weds 11/11 in Northridge at NOON) are currently full. THANK YOU all for being so enthusiastic and responding so quickly! We are trying to add more picks and will keep you posted..

Food Forward needs properties with fruit trees! If you know somebody who wants to donate their excess fruit please have them sign-up on the website or contact Erica at erica@foodforward.org

Gleaning fruit in Northridge!

Another beautiful Sunday with FF volunteers gleaning fruit in Northridge, donating 100% to local food pantries!

2 valencia orange trees + 7 energetic fruit loops + 2 hrs = 809lbs of free, fresh fruit to help feed LA’s hungry! A big thanks to Deborah, Tiffany, Jeremy, Amy, Orit, Lev and Richard – great work team…

We’re working on the Sept. calendar now so if anyone knows of any local trees you can steer our way, we would defiinitely appreciate it… Thanks for the ongoing support!