Edible Sacramento Fall 2022

THE GREENHOUSE

Fruitful Idea What to do with your bumper crop of fruit? Feed your neighbors. A warm spring brought larger-than-usual fruit loads to many backyard trees — and an abundance of homegrown produce. While a blessing, such a huge harvest can become a headache. At Sacramento’s River City Food Bank, executive director Amanda McCarthy takes anyone’s excess bags of fresh oranges, apples, and other fruit. She has families to feed. “Our need has gone through the roof!” she says. “We see a lot of neighbors helping neighbors … No one should experience hunger whenwe’re literally growing food in our backyards.” Individuals may pick their own fruit to donate, or they may call in volunteer harvesters to do the gleaning — gathering food that otherwisewould go towaste. They can join volunteer gleaning groups, such as Harvest Sacramento or Yolo Grown, or form their own neighborhood gleaning group. “Wewelcome all kinds of donations!”McCarthy adds. “We love when people bring in fresh oranges, peaches, and other fruit from their trees.” SUPPLY MEETS DEMAND The need for fresh produce has never been greater. “During the pandemic, we saw a 30 percent increase in people needing service, tomore than 200,000,”McCarthy says. In2021, River City provided2.1millionpounds of healthy food, half of it fresh produce. Sacramento’s oldest food bank, River City, accepts donations of fresh fruits and vegetables at its two locations (Midtown Sacra mento andArdenArcade) on twomornings eachweek; no appoint ment is necessary. (See Rivercityfoodbank.org for details.) Volun teers sort the donations and dispose of bruised or buggy fruit. “We operate on an honor system; if you wouldn’t eat it yourself, don’t bring it to the foodbank,”McCarthy says. “We trust people are giving us food that’s been safely kept (and shows no signs of decay).” Citrus and apples are always in demand. Among unusual re quests are dates, figs, and pomegranates — favorites among recent immigrants. In Yolo County, Yolo Grown (part of Yolo Food Bank) gleans crops from small farms and orchards as well as Woodland and Davis backyards. Some farmers, such as Jim and Deborah Durst WRITTEN BY DEBBIE ARRINGTON ILLUSTRATION BY SOPHIA PAPPAS

of Esparto, grow crops specifically for Yolo Grown, and volunteers harvest their produce. “We’re in a unique situation,” says JimNewton, nutrition sourc ing coordinator at YoloFoodBank. “We’re surrounded by farmland. Farmers are very generous; theirmain goal is to feedpeople.” Last year, YoloGrowngleaned anddistributed900,000pounds of produce, three times the demand before the pandemic. Yolo Grown partners with gleaning volunteer organizations Community Harvest of Davis andWoodland Community Harvest; crews harvest backyard fruit two or three times a week, as request ed. Residents should contact Yolo Food Bank (Yolofoodbank.org) to schedule times todropoŸexcessproduceor for gleaners toremove it. Coordinated by Soil Born Farms, Harvest Sacramento targets backyard citrus inwinter and spring, but it helps with other glean ing eŸorts year-round. Ideal for gleaning, citrus is plentiful in Sac ramento and travels well oŸ the tree. Email Harvestsacramento@ soilborn.org or visit Soilborn.org for details. Sierra Harvest gleans the Gold Country. Based in Nevada City, it organizes volunteers to harvest fresh food, then donates it to Interfaith Food Ministry, which distributes the produce. Visit Sierraharvest.org/gleaning for details. You can also donate directly to a food pantry near you. Ampleharvest.org hosts an online matching service in which gar deners or small farmers with excess produce can find someone nearbywhowould really appreciate it; 8,000 food pantries are list ed nationwide. Go to Ampleharvest.org/find-pantry for details. Wherever you choose to donate, your homegrown, healthy, fresh fruits will wind up in the stomachs of folks who need them rather than rot on the ground. That’s what gleaning is all about.

6 FALL 2022

edible Sacramento e i le