Don’t let fruit and veg go to waste while you’re on holiday

Many Aucklanders will be heading away over the holidays, leaving fruit and veg to go to waste in their gardens over the summer. Community Fruit Harvesting is asking them to spare a thought for the many families in need over the festive season and let the group know they have produce available to pick.

“Christmas time can be tough financially, but we can help families to put fresh food on the table and come together over a meal,” says Di Celliers, Community Fruit Harvesting Co-ordinator for Auckland. “Summer is often a time of abundance in the garden with a glut of tomatoes, courgettes, beans, lettuce and berries. It’s a great opportunity to help those less fortunate at this giving time of year.”

Fruit, vegetables and preserves are provided to the Auckland City Mission, which runs the Foodlink programme, regularly supplying food to 70 food banks and community groups between Thames and Kaitaia.

“The Auckland City Mission does a tremendous job providing extra assistance to people in need over the December period, as well as serving Christmas dinner to more than 2,500 people,” says Di. “The Mission is so grateful for every piece of fruit or veg that we can provide.”

Plums, peaches and nectarines will also soon be coming into season and Community Fruit Harvesting would like to remind people with unwanted fruit to register their tree so the fruit can be picked and given to charity fresh or made into jam.

People with fruit and vegetables available for picking, or who want to volunteer to pick and deliver produce, can visit www.pickfruit.co.nz to register or email Di Celliers on pickfruit@xtra.co.nz.

About Community Fruit Harvesting
Community Fruit Harvesting is a registered charity set up to facilitate the sharing of fruit from our own back yards with charity. People with fruit they can’t pick or don’t want register their trees and volunteers pick the fruit and donate it to those that need it. The group was started in 2011 by Auckland North Shore resident Di Celliers, and currently operates in several cities and towns throughout New Zealand.

Like Community Fruit Harvesting on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pickfruit.

ENDS

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