The Portland Fruit Tree Project (PFTP) is a non-profit working to increase equitable access to healthy food while strengthening communities by empowering neighbors to share in the harvest and care of city-grown produce.
Now they’ve recently added another option to their existing harvesting service for people who have too much fruit.
The “fruit hub” is a new walk-in cooler located behind their office at 5431 NE 20th Ave. and the community can drop off fruit donations there. When fruit is dropped off, all people need to do is email harvestadmin@portlandfruit.org so that the organization can get the fruit distributed to their community partners.
Harvested fruit may not look like the more perfect specimens one would see in the grocery store, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t edible or suitable for donation.
PFTP offers an easy to understand way to differentiate between “ugly” fruit still suitable for donation and diseased fruit not suitable for donation, but still edible.
See page five of the PFTP DIY Harvest Kit at bit.ly/PFTPHarvestKit to determine which category your harvested fruit falls into.
Another option for those with too much fruit on their trees is to alert neighbors when they are welcome to help themselves.
PFTP has established a Facebook group, Share in the Harvest at bit.ly/PFTPgroup, to help people connect.