Food Forward!

Volunteered with my little sis Kelly for Food Forward last Saturday. I've written about them before but in a nutshell volunteers go to homes and businesses of people who own fruit trees that are not using them and pick their tangelos and lemons (what we harvested on Saturday).

The fruit is then donated to a local food bank (in this case MEND Poverty and North Valley Caring Services) with the owners getting a tax write off for the market weight of their fruit. And the best part (other than being do-gooders) is that you get to climb up in trees (hooray!)

In total on Saturday we picked: - 26 boxes of fruit - Each box is approximately 45 lbs.

That means in two hours we picked over a thousand pounds of fruit!

If you're interested in climbing some trees (and doing some do-gooder work) check out Food Forward. They just put up their February pick schedule.

Something to Check Out: The Garden School Workday

Hey Guys, Unfortunately this got canceled. But check out the info b/c they'll have another work party in December! --Kat

Let's Get Dirty!

The Garden School is having their Saturday Workday this Saturday (duh!) November 13th from 9-12. What's the Garden School, you ask? It's an organization created to combat the Los Angeles Food Desert issue. Wait, what's a Food Desert? I am glad you asked...

A Food Desert is a location in a city where there are no access to healthy "real" food and is instead populated with with unhealthy "fake" food. In layman's terms: Whole Foods Ain't going to low income areas... these are areas where the only place to buy your food is at a fast food joint or a liquor store. So in certain parts of the city, probably not where you live Yuppie if you're reading my "food blog," kids don't know what a fresh vegetable looks like.

But luckily some Foodie-types got together to do some do-gooder work, Hooray! They built a garden at the 24th Street Elementary School so that kids can learn what a tomato is (and have a great outdoor space to run around)!
And once a month you're welcome to show up to help plant seeds, turn beds, and generally just play the outdoors and get nice and dirty while earning some good Karma.
Check it out. Below are the Deets!

GARDEN SCHOOL WORKDAY
Saturday, November 13th, 9am-12pm.
Bring your shovels, gloves, sunscreen (Mos Def!), water and your favorite gardening tools.
Address: 24th Street Elementary School 2055 W 24th Street Los Angeles, 90018
Directions: From the I-10 Freeway: take the "Western Avenue" exit (3 miles west of downtown) and head south on Western. Take a right turn on 24th Street. The school is one block down on the right, and the parking lot entrance is just beyond the school. There is plenty of street parking as well.
If you want bring anything or if you have questions you can contact Julia at: julia@gardenschoolfoundation.org

Grapefruits, Lemons, and Volunteering, Oh My!

On Sunday I was lucky enough to spend some time helping out one of my favorite LA do-gooder organizations: Food Forward. If you haven’t heard about them, Food Forward is an all-volunteer grassroots group who convene at properties they have been in invited to and glean the excess fruit on their trees, donating 100% to local food pantries.



This organization has an energizing spirit, allowing Angelenos to feel awesomely great about helping out someone else while enjoying the great outdoors. It’s an absolutely wonderful group because it’s a win-win for everyone: the people who allow their trees to be picked get a charitable tax deduction and a clean tree (it’s actually healthier for it to get picked like this) and the food banks get some fresh fruits or vegetables (something that they are usually very short on). This spirit is so contagious that Food Forward now knows people who are planting fruit trees in their backyards so they will be able to donate in about 5 years (the standard time it takes to get good fruit off a tree).



On Sunday I traveled to a backyard in Sylmar and attacked a grapefruit and lemon tree with vengeance. The result: 14 boxes of citrus that were donated to the SOVA Community Food and Resource Program. Along with SOVA, Food Forward also partners with Mend Poverty to distribute the produce they glean to a total of over 30,000 clients a month across Southern California.



Truthfully I volunteer for this organization for selfish reasons, it quenches my insatiable thirst to climb trees and pick fruit. The fact that we are helping people reconnect to their food system and combat urban hunger is icing on the cake.

Food Forward is always looking for trees and/or volunteers so check them out if you want to spend an inspiring weekend afternoon outdoors (tree climbing not necessarily a requirement).

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