Loving Garland Green Found Food
Each year hundreds of thousands of pounds of food goes to waste in urban areas all over the USA. The mission of this group of Loving Garland Green members would be to capture and recycle the use of as much as possible of local food currently going to waste.
A core group of volunteers are in charge of managing the operation and coordinating volunteer fruit pickers. The core volunteer group locates places in the city where volunteers can gather the fruit (with permission from the owners) and creates maps with information regarding these sites (what type of trees, names of owners, etc.). Various contracts are worked out with the owners of the fruit trees. Some may not care to keep any of the fruit. Others may want take a portion of the harvest for themselves. Some trees may be located on abandoned property, or even property that is owned by the city.
In addition to the wasted fruit, there are many untapped resources for food and plant-related products in Garland. For example, did you know that we have over 50 acres of bamboo trees growing alongside the creeks and waterways in our city? Most of these bamboo groves are located on city-owned property. Just about none of this plant resource is currently being put to use in our city. Yet, with just a little effort and enterprising group could establish a viable bamboo industry right here in Garland. For example, there is bamboo vinegar. Then there is also bamboo tea. Did you know the leaves of bamboo plants are harvested all over the world for tea?
Many urban areas in the USA now have groups who gather fruit that would otherwise go unused. For example, Food Forward in Los Angeles has picked 1, 765, 565 pounds of fruit in Los Angeles since its inception in 2009 and has given 100% away.
Food Forward’s vision is to reconnect our community with the abundance of food already present in our everyday lives, while creating change around the issues of urban hunger, food waste and food justice
Food Forward’s mission is to reconnect people with people – through food – by bringing together volunteers and neighbors to share in the gleaning and distributing of locally grown food from private homes and public spaces which is then distributed to local food pantries and organizations serving those in need.
Read more about these programs. Loving_Garland_Green_Found_Fruit.pdf
Then, if you like what you read and want to be involved in leading the efforts for growing the local economy and increasing food security with harvesting and use of existing food resources, call us at 972-571-4497. We would love for you to join us.
