Oregon orchard donates tons of cherries to the needy

SALEM – The group Farmers Ending Hunger has lined up a large donation of cherries from a prominent orchardist in The Dalles.

The Capital Press reported that roughly 80,000 pounds of fresh cherries will be distributed to Oregon food banks this summer.

Ken Bailey of Orchard View Farms is donating 14 totes per week, each of them 1,000 pounds.

The donated dark cherries are ones the commercial market doesn’t want because they are perhaps under-sized or off color.

Orchard View has an optical scan sorting system that routes market-quality cherries to the appropriate totes. The system practically eliminates hand-sorting labor costs and results in a product of uniform quality, size and color.