Posts Tagged ‘Community’

WANTED – Food Charities

We’re looking for organizations that accept perishable food donations to share our fruit with and to feature in our “Guide to Backyard Fruit”.


Fruit Share is expanding into six new neighbourhoods this summer.  That means we’re going to have a lot more fruit to share.  It also means we can help provide fresh, local, nutritious food to some of the 58,000 Manitobans that use food banks each month. 

But, no matter how big Fruit Share gets, we know Fruit Share volunteers will never be able to pick it all.  We also know that Winnipeg homeowners hate to see their fruit go to waste.  So, we’re also producing a “Guide to Backyard Fruit” that will help homeowners identify what’s growing in their backyards, how to use it and what to do with any left over fruit.  This guide will include a listing of as many organizations in Winnipeg that accept fresh fruit as possible.  Hence, the call for Food Charities.

Our goal is to avoid this…

33 bags of apples headed to the landfill
And do much more of this…
Dropping rhubarb at Siloam Mission

Please help us build our database of food charities.  We’ve already approached the organizations we donated to last year (Agape, Siloam, Wpg Harvest, Teen Challenge, and Sisters of Charity) but are interested in hearing about others.  All organizations have to do is complete this Food Charity Registration Form.

Thanks for spreading the word.

 

Rhubarb for Siloam Mission

It was a good day for Fruit Share.  

Today, I got up the nerve to knock on a stranger’s door and ask if we could harvest his rhubarb.  He was thrilled to get rid of it.  Five minutes later, Aidan and I were harvesting the biggest load of rhubarb yet.
Chopping off the leaves turned out to be Aidan’s favourite part – a nine year old with a big knife – of course he thought that was fun!  He was actually a little annoyed when his dad and little sister cut in on his action.
In the end, we got a whopping 18 lbs (8 kg) of rhubarb.  
This time, since there was a significant amount, we brought the rhubarb to Siloam Mission.  They were thrilled at the prospect of making a rhubarb dessert.
My husband and kids went with me to deliver the rhubarb.  On the way there, we talked about homelessness, but our talking didn’t prepare us for the line of people waiting for food and a place to rest for the night.  On the way home, there was silence in the car.  We were all processing the sight of so many people of all ages, sizes, genders and cultures needing assistance.  Later, when we asked the kids what they thought about what we saw, Melanie said she was sad and Aidan said he didn’t understand why there were so many people there.  We tried our best, but can anyone give a reasonable explanation as to why there are so many homeless people in a rich country like ours?
Making rhubarb crisp, building community, helping others and giving us all something to think about – it truly was a good day for Fruit Share.

Come in, Come in!

Last night was the second delivery of rhubarb to Fred Tipping Place.  As I approached the glass doors I could hear “That’s the lady who I got the rhubarb from.” which was quickly followed by a chorus of “Come in, Come in!”   And just like that, the awkwardness of entering a seniors apartment building with a little bit of rhubarb disappeared.  Clearly, they’re happy to get some fresh rhubarb – no matter how much or how little.