Apples for everyone, pick for your neighbor

By Melissa Pasanen, Free Press Correspondent • September 18, 2009

It’s that time of year in Vermont when apples are everywhere, and there seems to be more than enough of the fresh fruit to go around.

This fall, a new partnership between the Vermont Foodbank and the Agency of Agriculture is helping ensure that those healthy symbols of our state really do get to every Vermonter.

When the two organizations started brainstorming for a special event to mark September’s Hunger Action Month, apples were a natural, said Theresa Snow, program director of Agricultural Resources for Vermont Foodbank. Snow has a special focus on salvaging or gleaning locally grown fruits and vegetables that might otherwise go to waste.

“Apples are relatively easy for the Foodbank to handle and store without the pressure of other perishables,” Snow explained. “They’re a versatile and easily absorbed crop, easily accepted by our partners across the state like foodshelves and pantries, senior centers, boys and girls clubs, and senior and community meal sites,” she continued. “It only makes sense to have more of them in Foodbank inventory.”

Fourteen Vermont apple orchards signed up to participate in the inaugural Pick For Your Neighbor program, but the effort depends on another team player to work: You.

To contribute to Pick For Your Neighbor, all people need to do is head to a nearby participating orchard like Adams in Williston, Hackett’s in South Hero, or Shelburne Orchards and pick and pay for an extra bag or two of apples, which will be stored for later pick-up by the Foodbank.

“Farms have donated in the past,” said Snow, “but not to the volume we hope this program will bring in. This food is there to rescue and this program lets people get involved in a different way than just writing a check to the Foodbank.”

“It helps the orchards. It helps the apple industry. It helps families who might not have access to fresh fruit,” said Kelly Loftus, communications director for the Agency of Agriculture, which has made USDA grant funds available to promote the program. Loftus is not aware of any other state with a similar effort and expects, like after this summer’s fresh dairy donation program, she may receive calls from others interested in replicating it.

It’s been a great year for apples in South Hero, said Ron Hackett, co-owner for 43 years with his wife Celia of Hackett’s Orchard. The Hacketts have always donated apples to the Foodbank when they had extra picked fruit, but that can be limited by the labor needed to pick.

Hackett’s, like some of the other participating orchards, has offered to match Pick for Your Neighbor donations up to a certain amount. “It is an excellent program idea and a needed program,” Ron Hackett said.

No one knows that better than Rachel Moss, development and communications director for the Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf, a Vermont Foodbank partner.

“Obviously the need is much greater this year,” Moss said. “Over the past year we’ve seen about 1,000 new people coming to the Food Shelf. That puts a strain on our resources and because of the economy our donations are down, too. For example, food drives are down 50 percent.”

Apples, Moss said, not only provide valuable fresh fruit offerings at the Food Shelf, but can also be made into storable foods like applesauce and apple crisp by the organization’s Community Kitchen. “Any program that brings in fresh fruits and vegetables, that’s just fantastic,” she said. “The fact that they’re local is a bonus, too.”