Urban Fruit Gleaning

Do you have a fruit tree in your yard? Does over half of the fruit go to waste?

Gleaning refers to the collecting of items discarded by others. Maybe your neighbor has an apple tree that produces way more apples than his family could eat. If you help yourself to a few, that's called gleaning.

Even if everyone on your block enjoyed your neighbor's apples, chances are, there would still be a lot left. Birds and squirrels would probably enjoy some of it, but some of it would still go to waste. That's certainly the case with the fig tree in my backyard.

The Portland Fruit Tree Project decided to stop all of the fruit in Portland, Oregon from going to waste. They organize people to gather fruit before it falls and donate it to local food banks.

They register fruit & nut trees around the city, coordinate harvesting parties, and offer workshops in pruning & fruit preservation.

They provide a valuable service that helps communities benefit directly from local resources. The great thing about this program is that in large part, the fruit would not be harvested or eaten by anyone—-if not for fruit gleaning. Everyone involved benefits, including the trees, as harvesting is beneficial to their health!



Another group, Fallen Fruit is working to produce maps of food producing trees in public spaces in order to encourage citizens to learn about the free food sources in their local communities. The project also asks all of us to petition cities and towns to support community gardens and only plant fruit-bearing trees in public parks.

Both of these ideas seem simple, but they could make a big impact in Memphis.