Home harvest program benefits food bank
It’s harvest time in the Inland Northwest. In commercial orchards and family backyards, fruit trees hang heavy with apples, pears and juicy plums. But many times, especially at private residences, the fruit falls to the ground and spoils or is nibbled by deer and birds.
When Bob Slyter saw perfectly good fruit rotting on the ground, the waste first troubled and then inspired him. Slyter and his wife had recently moved to Spokane from Colorado and joined the Rotary Club of Spokane-West. “The Rotary was looking for a ‘dirty hands’ project,” he said. He knew local food banks would welcome donations of fresh produce, so he proposed a home harvest program.
According to Rotary member Jim Roeber, “Bob’s idea was if a homeowner had too much fruit, Rotary members would come in to help. Our club jumped on the idea as did Rod Wieber, director of donor and community relations for Second Harvest Inland Northwest.”
Wieber and Slyter saw the potential to help hungry families by fostering a partnership between Second Harvest and the Rotary club. “It can be difficult for the food banks to get fresh produce,” Wieber said.
The Rotary Home Harvest program is off to a great start. They’ve picked 80 pounds of plums and 35 pounds of pears for an elderly gentleman in Deer Park and gleaned apple trees for a disabled woman in the Shadle area. Longtime Rotarian Chuck Clark said, “The homeowners are very pleased. They’re happy that their fruit isn’t hitting the ground and going to waste.”
In addition, the club is finalizing a similar plan with the Green Bluff Growers Association. “We fully expect at least some of the growers to bring us in after they close down their public U-pick apple program this fall,” Roeber said. “We’ll glean that final 5 to 10 percent of the crop still hanging and deliver 100 percent of it to Second Harvest in the growers’ names.” He continued, “This is a win-win for everyone: The growers will get their trees cleared for free. Second Harvest will get much needed fruit, and the growers will even get a receipt for their donations for tax purposes.”
Some growers aren’t waiting for the season to end. Green Bluff farmer Rick Roening set aside a plum tree for the Home Harvest program, and volunteers gathered a bountiful harvest. “We got 275 pounds of plums from that tree,” Slyter said.
As word spread, calls from private homeowners have increased. Last Friday afternoon, a half-dozen Rotary members gathered at two adjoining properties on the Moran Prairie. A blustery breeze blew through the apple trees, swirling red and gold leaves around the volunteers in whirlwind of color.
Two members of Rotaract, a Rotary club for adults aged 18-30, joined members from Rotary-West. Twenty-five-year-old Wysteria Rush was soon lugging brimming boxes of Granny Smiths through the small stand of trees. “Rotaract is a great way to get involved in your community,” she said.
The sound of apples thunking into boxes and buckets mingled with chatting and laughter of the volunteers. Each box is labeled with the donor’s name so they can receive a tax-deduction receipt from Second Harvest. At the end of the afternoon, Slyter estimated they’d picked 60-70 pounds of apples.
Rod Wieber is thrilled with the program. “We really appreciate their efforts and encourage other service organizations to explore this,” he said. “It’s a great way to feed hungry people.”