Fruit Rescue saves a tonne of fruit in the south west
The harvest that helped to reach one tonne of fruit at Koroit Railway Place
Fruit Rescue volunteers have been busy collecting surplus fruit that would otherwise go to waste from public spaces and gardens to be redirected to those in need, reaching a major milestone this week.
The volunteer crew collected apples from trees in Koroit at the Railway Place and another home which ticked over their first tonne of fruit saved and redistributed to community.
Director of Fruit Rescue, Courtney Mathew said reaching this milestone so quickly was proof of the need and benefits of the project with growing demand for local emergency food relief.
“We’re so thankful to the people who have contributed to the success of this program. It’s been an amazing season with many friendships forming while we do something great for the community.”
“It’s hard to imagine what one tonne of fruit even looks like… but using the average Australian fruit price of $7.50 a kilo that means we’ve redistributed more than $7,500 of produce in the community.”
“This doesn’t even take into account the hundreds of kilos of damaged fruit we’ve shared with local wildlife parks and local farms.”
The program, which started as a Leadership Great South Coast project, launched in November last year. It has a strong volunteer base with over 80 people registered to help pick the fruit.
Dianne Membery signed up as a volunteer in December and has now taken on a role to help coordinate the harvest. “I love that good fresh food to not going to waste and that we can help Food Share provide fresh food to our community,” she said.
“Picks are usually less than an hour so it’s not onerous and you can pick and chose times and days that suit you. Being a harvest leader is a great way you can help our community.”
Western District Food Share Executive Officer Amanda Hennessy said her organisation was experiencing an increase in demand for emergency food relief services, with 5 tonne more food distributed through their school and agency partners compared to the same time last year.
“With the cost-of-living crisis and financial pressure on households, we’re finding that community donations are down.”
“Fruit Rescue has been fantastic with large donations of apricots, apples, pears, plums which go straight into our emergency food hampers and out to our community meals partners and schools for their fresh fruit programs.”
As the fruit season begins to wind down, there are no plans to curb the momentum the Fruit Rescue team have started.
The team are investigating a community olive collection in a trial to press them into olive oil. People would be able to drop their olive harvest off to be weighed, and then receive back the percentage of their contribution as oil. This will happen in late May or early June.
They are working on a project, funded through Warrnambool City Council’s Healthy Warrnambool program to improve the health and extend the harvest of the trees through pruning and grafting during winter.
Next harvest season, they will deliver free preserving workshops to community members in the hope of creating a crew of people that can turn the fruit into a range of food products. Email hellofruitrescue@gmail.com if you’re interested in being involved.
How Fruit Rescue works:
Community members register their trees.
Volunteers sign up for harvest events of their choosing, contributing to a meaningful cause whilst receiving some fruit in return.
Harvested fruit is distributed between the community members who have registered the trees, the volunteer pickers and local community organisations such as Western District Food Share.
