Sharing the Produce
Tuesday, July 29, 2014 at 4:52AM By Rebecca Hiebert
Are you overwhelmed with an abundance of peas in your garden??
Seeding your garden in Springtime is exciting. After a long cold winter you wait, impatiently, for a taste of fresh produce from the garden. In this excitement we often seed far too many veggies for our family. When mid summer hits and your garden is full to bursting, you don’t need to feel overwhelmed. Do not ignore the lettuce, letting it go to seed un-eaten, do not dismiss the green beans letting them get hard and tasteless. Fruit Share Steinbach can relieve the burden of your unwanted produce!
Fruit Share Steinbach is a non-profit organization now in its third season. Operating in the greater Steinbach area, Fruit Share helps to rescue unwanted produce. We connect homeowners who have too much fruit or veggies with volunteers who harvest the produce and then share it three ways with 1/3 going to the homeowner, 1/3 going to the volunteers and 1/3 going to a community organization such as the Food bank.
Originally Fruit Share Steinbach focused on rescuing unwanted fruit. During the 2013 season we rescued over 3500 lbs of strawberries, crab apples, apples, pears, plums, grapes, raspberries and other delicious prairie fruits donating to 10 organizations in the greater Steinbach area including Southeast Helping Hands, Soups On, Anna’s House and Agape House. Now we are looking to expand into rescuing vegetables as well. Fruit Share creates a win-win situation where volunteers help to harvest produce that would otherwise go to waste and share it with organizations that get few fresh produce donations.
Therefore, after you have harvested and preserved your own garden bounty and your plants are still bursting with healthy, vitamin rich produce, connect with Fruit Share Steinbach. Our volunteers will be happy to help share your goodies within the community.
Of course if you are looking to pick fruit or veggies please register as a volunteer picker. We need both homeowners and volunteer pickers to help share the wealth of fresh prairie bounty throughout the Southeast!
Please visit www.fruitsharesteinbach.ca or call 204-326-3919 to register your fruits or vegetables or to sign up as a volunteer picker. Help us share the wonderful Prairie vegetables and fruit within our neighbourhoods!
Reader Comments (1)
great column Rebecca! great concept too. everytime I see it happening I think again what a brilliant idea it is. carry on!