6,000 lbs of fresh fruit harvested for the hungry in Penticton.

The non-profit aims to alleviate hunger by gleaning, or harvesting, unused fruit from backyard fruit trees and recently expanded to Penticton earlier this year.

Harvested fruit is shared among the volunteer pickers, tree owners, and local charities and organizations serving those in need.

“The goal is to reduce the amount of wasted food and share the healthy produce with hungry people in our communities,” says the project’s President, Casey Hamilton.

The Okanagan Fruit Tree Project’s success in the past 3 years has led to its current expansion and saw the project adopt the Penticton Free Tree Project under its auspices earlier this year. Since its incorporation, the Penticton project has achieved considerable success in 2014.

Since June of this year, over 6,000 lbs of fruit were harvested by 50 volunteers – including cherries, apricots, plums, peaches, pears, and apples – bringing the organization’s total up to 36,000 lbs of food harvested between Lake Country and Penticton.

“The Okanagan Fruit Tree Project is a volunteer organization and our work would not be possible without our dedicated volunteers who go the extra mile to get fruit from tree to charity,” says Ailsa Beischer, the project coordinator, “We have a strong volunteer team in Penticton and they have been instrumental in growing the project in the area.”

Harvested fruit was donated to the Penticton Salvation Army Food Bank, Unity House, Soupateria, and the South Okanagan Women in Need Society among others. From there, the fruit was distributed to seniors, children and families, and individuals in need, either directly or through educational and recreational programs.

The harvesting season is now finished for the year, but picking operations will start up again in June 2015.

To sign up as a volunteer or register your fruit tree in Penticton, please contact the coordinator, Ailsa Beischer, at okanaganfruittree@gmail.com .

For more information, visit www.fruittreeproject.com or “Like” the project on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/OkanaganFruitTreeProject.

The Okanagan Fruit Tree Project is also seeking equipment donations including ladders, step stools, picking bags, weighing scale, and a first aid kits.