FruitShare

FruitShare partners with fruit tree owners and community volunteers to harvest and distribute fruit that would otherwise go to waste.

How It Works - Tree Owners

Request a scout online with our Guaranteed Harvest or Harvest Request google forms 1-2 weeks before your tree is ready to be harvested. Check out our Fruit Guides to help determine the best time to request a scout.

We scout upwards of 20 trees a day, and schedule based on location. When you request a scout you are signing up for a range of time, and can expect us anytime within that range.

Questions about our program? Contact our FruitShare Harvest Coordinator at pickfruit@gulb.org

Harvest Calendar

What is FruitShare?

We lead small groups of volunteers to harvest the fruit from previously neglected trees (homeowners yards, orchards, etc.), organizing 20+ harvests per week during our peak season!

The fresh fruit is then split up between the homeowners, volunteers and the Green Urban Lunch Box, where we redistribute the fruit within the community. See below for more specific examples of where this fresh fruit goes!

Why?

Food Waste: In the Salt Lake Valley, thousands of fruit trees grow in homeowners’ backyards, collectively producing hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh fruit each year. Due to the amount of attention fruit trees require, much of this fruit falls to the ground and goes to waste! Food waste is one of the leading causes of climate change and by reducing the amount of fruit that rots on the ground, we can eliminate a portion of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

Health Inequity: Additionally, 373,850 people are food insecure in Utah, meaning they do not have adequate resources to purchase nutritionally dense foods. Since the coronavirus pandemic started, we have watched the need for food assistance increase significantly. It is forecasted that the number of food insecure Utahns will increase by an additional 165,000 individuals. According to the Center for Disease Control, “Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables daily can help reduce the risk of many leading causes of illness and death, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and obesity”. These problems are serious and we are committed to combating them at a local level.

Where does the fruit go?

Other Hunger Relief Organizations like the Sunnyvale Food Pantry and Valor House
Free Farm Stands at Salt Lake County Senior Centers
Earned Income Programs like our FruitBox and Canner’s CSA
Local businesses like Pie Party and Mt. West Hard Cider
Volunteers, Homeowners, Seniors, Interns, & Apprentices

Quick
Stats 2021

3000

Trees registered in the program

Volunteers (Mostly recurring)

20000

Pounds of fruit harvested in 2021

400

Volunteer Hours Contributed in 2021

How to Support FruitShare

Subscribe to our FruitShare tree care program.

We offer pruning and fertilizing services for a small fee to homeowners registered in the FruitShare program. These services improve the health of trees and provide more abundant, higher quality fruit to donate to hunger relief.

Join the volunteer team!

We love our volunteers and would love to have you join us! There are many ways you can volunteer–from picking fruit to helping in a garden to sitting on a committee.