Fruit Connect
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What is Fruit Connect?
Fruit Connect is an easy online networking tool that brings together fruit owners with interested fruit pickers so that surplus urban fruit can be harvested, shared and enjoyed.
With this tool, fruit owners list their fruit and fruit pickers select which fruit they’d like to pick. Harvest dates and times are made between fruit owners and fruit pickers through email. On the agreed time, the fruit gets picked and shared equally between fruit owners, volunteer pickers and community groups that accept local fruit donations.
The tool also links to information about how to harvest fruit, where fruit can be donated and recipes for using local fruit.
How does it Work?
- Fruit owners and fruit pickers subscribe to Fruit Connect for $10.75/year. – SUBSCRIBE HERE or copy and paste this address in your browser http://fruitconnect.www.fruitshare.ca
- Fruit owners create a ‘Pick’ to describe what fruit they have available for picking, where the fruit is located and when the fruit is available for picking*. They can set a specific date and time for a pick or they can create a ‘Flexible Pick‘ which allows fruit pickers to contact them in order to arrange a convenient picking time within a certain time frame. Click here for detailed instructions on How to Create a Successful Pick.
- Fruit pickers can browse all the fruit that is available for picking. They can sort the list of available fruit by fruit type, neighbourhood or date. They can select any of the listings to get more details about the pick and then choose whether or not they wish to attend a certain pick.
- Fruit owners and fruit pickers communicate via email to finalize and confirm pick details. Click here for tips for Tips for Communicating About Picks.
- Once a harvest is done, it’s important for pickers to let us know how much fruit was picked and with whom it was shared. Click here for instructions on How to Complete Harvest Feedback.
*There are no limits or restrictions as to how many picks a fruit owner can create or how many picks a fruit picker may attend within the season. Fruit owners can also sign up to pick fruit if they wish.
How much does it Cost?
- The fee for fruit owners and fruit pickers per season is $10.75.
- Subscriptions expire on December 31 of each year. There are no pro-rated fees.
- Fees are paid online via Paypal or credit card. If you would like to use an alternative method of payment, contact Danielle at 204-895-9962
Who runs Fruit Connect?
Fruit Connect is managed by Fruit Share, a project coordinated by T&T Seeds to support the picking, sharing and enjoying fresh fruit growing in backyards throughout Winnipeg. As a project, Fruit Share has limited ability to get involved in managing individual picks. With this system, the onus to coordinate fruit picks is on the fruit owners and fruit pickers to link up via Fruit Connect.
Technical expertise and development of this tool was provided by the good people at Tactica Interactive. If you are experiencing problems with the Fruit Connect site, you can contact Tactica directly to submit a ticket and they will work out your technical issues.
How can we get Fruit Connect in our Community?
Currently the matchmaking service, Fruit Connect, is only available in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but wouldn’t it be great if this tool were available in other communities?
To learn more, check out this video on Fruit Connect. You may also want to read about some of the benefits and challenges of a self-serve model of fruit rescuing.
We’d love to talk to you about how you can make Fruit Connect work in your community. Doing so will likely involve a little brainstorming with Fruit Share and some system tweaking by the programming experts at Tactica. To start the conversation email [email protected] and let’s see what we can do.
How do I know what Neighbourhood I am in?
The neighbourhood map in Fruit Connect is based off the City of Winnipeg Neighbourhood Profiles. Take a look at the map below to see what neighbourhood your home is considered to be a part of.
Why can’t I find my Neighbourhood?
If your city is outside of Winnipeg, it will not be listed as our neighbourhoods are based on the City of Winnipeg Neighbourhood Profiles.
Fruit Connect works best in communities where there are existing initiatives on fruit rescuing, food gleaning, food security or food waste reduction. It is important to have a group that can support and promote the use of a tool like Fruit Connect in order to ensure there are sufficient number of users to make it worthwhile for everyone involved. If this is your community, we’d love to talk to you about using Fruit Connect in your ‘hood!