Grow Local Colorado is gearing up for its annual glean.
That's when volunteers will visit fruit trees in local yards and shake off their excess bounties to give to people in need.
Last year they raked in almost 10,000 pounds worth of food from 85 trees that may have otherwise gone bad. Most went to food access organizations like Metro Caring.
But Grow Local still didn't collect as much as they wanted.
"There's a lot more fruit that we did not get to," Grow Local founder Barbara Masoner said. "There were still 20 trees on our waiting list at the end of the season."
They're hoping you might help them haul in even more next month. Masoner is looking for volunteers who want to help pluck apples, pears and apricots.
She also wants to find more people with fruit trees in their yards who are willing to donate their surpluses to the cause.
Those interested in plucking fruit can sign up here. People who would like to open their fruit trees for gleaning can email [email protected].
Grow Local is surrounded by a new community of nonprofits helping them save nutritious food.
The organization has been fostering garden plots in places like Civic Center Park for over a decade, growing food for people who need it and giving a collective of green thumbs a place to connect.
Then, a few years ago, Masoner realized Denver had more to offer in its backyard trees and brambles. Her gleaning project began as an informal thing before scores of volunteers showed up to help, making it clear she needed some organizational backup.
So, this year, Grow Local is partnering with a collective of nonprofits with parallel missions. They include:
- Uproot Colorado, which focuses on collecting millions of pounds of surplus on Colorado farms
- Denver Urban Gardens, which supports little plots all over town
- Slow Food Denver, which works to achieve a sustainable food system
- Denver Food Rescue, which saves food from landfills year-round
- GreenLatinos, which works on environmental equity issues and gave Grow Local a grant to support the gleaning project.
- And more!
Creighton Hofeditz, Denver Urban Gardens' director of permaculture, said these new connections are preparing the city for a more sustainable future.
His group, in particular, is planting food forests across Denver. There will be a lot more fruit for hungry neighbors in the years to come, but all of that would be wasted without an army to collect it.
As groups like Grow Local train volunteers for their gleaning, Hofeditz said they're creating a culture of service that will be ready for future harvests.
"If there's one thing that Denver can be self-sufficient on in the future, that could be fruit," Hofeditz said. "We're planting hundreds of trees every year."
Much of this year's glean will be a one-day blitz.
In seasons past, Masoner's teams of collectors fanned out over the city through the course of weeks.
With more volunteers and help keeping things organized this time, they're planning to do most of this work in one day: Sept. 28.
(Don't worry if you can't make that day, they say on their website. They will have some more plucking parties through October to collect whatever's left.)
They'll celebrate the haul on Sept. 29 with an "ApplePalooza," which Masoner said will include a cider-making demo, a baking contest and recipe sharing.
"We'll have poetry related to gleaning. We're going to have music related to fruit," she added.
Because, Masoner emphasized, this goes beyond helping people eat better.
"The number one killer in this nation is loneliness," she said. "This is a fabulous way to create and connect with community."
