Submitted
With most fruit trees about to hit their peak in the next few weeks, the Nelson Food Cupboard’s Harvest Rescue team wants to share its new approach for gathering local fruit.
Starting now, the Harvest Rescue program and co-ordinator Heather Keczan are trying a two-pronged system. There will be two scheduled picking times — same time and same meeting place each week. The set times are Saturdays 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Tuesdays 4 to 8 p.m.
The picks begin on Aug. 4 and run through Oct. 6. Pickers meet at the Food Cupboard garden at the corner of Ward and Hoover Streets.
As has always been the case, the fruit picked will be split in three — a third to the picker, a third to the fruit tree owner, and a third to the Nelson Food Cupboard food bank.
The other part of the plan is a just-created Facebook group (look for “Harvest Rescue Fruit Exchange” within Facebook). The intention of this group is to connect fruit pickers with fruit-tree owners who want to arrange a pick on their own.
These kinds of Facebook groups have been very successful in bringing people together around a common interest. The group already has many members and the fruit-based chatter has begun. Though the Food Cupboard has set up the group, participants organize themselves and the Food Cupboard can’t be responsible for anything that may or may not happen.
To learn more about Harvest Rescue this year, sign up as a picker or to register your tree for a pick, contact Keczan at heather@foodcupboard.org or call her at 250-551-8343. You may also visit foodcupboard.org for information.