(BCN) – The idea of Vidula Ayer residing in Cuperno to treat food and hunger waste in its community is simple – gathering volunteers to choose fruits that will rot on population trees and give them to people in need. All you require is 8 feet length, buckets, free access to the backyard of strangers.
Ayer, which leads the Rotary Club of Cupertino’s Fruit Harvesting Progricing program in cooperation with Hunger and Charlesness Nyprofit West Valley Services, has been harvested to the harvest of more than 850 lbs of fresh fruit since the idea appeared last spring. Its team of approximately 10 volunteers has chosen three times from the population who offer their trees to the program, including lemon, orange and peaches. The team chooses fruit for a few hours once a month. The harvest goes to West Valley Community Services, where people who face food insecurity can enjoy fruits from the backyard to the table.
Ayer said the program is fighting climate change by reducing food waste while fighting hunger as well. The fruit, which comes from trees in Cobertino, Sanifel, Santa Clara and Campbell, serves nearly 700 families throughout West Valley. Ayer wants more donors from trees to register so that the program is not limited to harvesting two trees for each session.
“This is my ambition … there should be no food that falls on the ground at all,” she told the San Jose Strait newspaper. “We must realize that we have a place to do something better with it.”
Fruit can also go to other meal providers if there is a lot of west Valley community services. If it has already started rot, it goes to the local farms for fertilizer instead of the landfill.
Sogtha Vincaraman, CEO of West Valley’s community services, said people who have never heard of the non -profit organization have become more involved in helping their neighbors because of the experimental program. She said that she provides new fruits that her customers may not be able to tolerate.
“I think this is the most exciting, that it connects the points we want, and gathered society together,” Vikkraman told San Jose Spotlight. “It is awareness, (A) is an education that goes beyond mere (reducing) food waste, because there is a procedure here and you are doing something about it.”
The program means a lot for volunteers, including resident Cupertino and Rotary Club Chuck Harper. He grew up in poverty as a child of a single mother and was limited to fresh fruits and vegetables. He said that the food they had most likely because of the help of his community, and he wanted to return the favor in return.
“I will never know who left him for me, but I remember them and I hope that someone does not know me remember me,” Harper told San Jose Spotlight:
The collection of fruits from population trees to fight food insecurity is not a new idea. The non -profit harvest in San Jose, which was established in 2001, collects about 250,000 pounds of fruit annually throughout the Gulf region.
Craig Dersons, CEO of Harvist Village, said his team trained the organizers of Cuperno how to form their own program. He wants the West Valley to build a network of volunteers and donors to trees so that they feel they are a team, making it a sustainable program.
“What we really do is the harvest of societal food,” said San Jose Straiz. “It is related to community building and the involvement of community members in service as much as fruit.”
The next harvest is Sunday, August 24, starting at 8:30 am, volunteers will choose lemon and apples from Jean Chu trees residing in Santa Clara.
Chu, who inherited trees when she moved to the neighborhood in 2008, said her family rarely used fruit and chooses about three to five lemon per year. After this harvest, she said that she loves to participate in the program again as soon as the new fruit grows.
“It makes me feel that I can really help society, and realize the things I do not need,” San Jose Spotlight told San Jose Spotlight. “They should be used well (for) people who really need it and appreciate it more than I do.”
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