As I jogged by, the driver, an older gentleman, hailed me. "I’m Carl,” he called out. “I'm checking on the chokecherries for my jam this winter!”
Carl is aware of the bounty that fruit trees provide in homeowners’ backyards. Happily, Salt Lake City hosts a fruitshare organization, so we don’t have to lurk on bike trails for our urban fruit. The Green Urban Lunch Box was founded as a non-profit in 2012, with a mission to empower people to build a resilient food culture.
Their staff coordinates volunteer groups with homeowners to harvest and distribute fruit that would otherwise go to waste. They supply the timing and the address for each harvest, while volunteers provide the hands and enthusiasm for the picking.
Different fruit arrives as the season progresses: first cherries, then apricots, peaches, pears, apples and finally, grapes.
Once a week between June and October, I sign up for a harvest session. When I arrive, there’s the Lunchbox van, holding ladders, picking buckets and hardhats. After two glorious hours of picking and sorting and chatting with the other volunteers, we divvy up the bounty.
In 2022, 75 harvesters picked over 30,000 pounds of fruit, shared equally among the volunteers, the homeowners and organizations that feed food insecure families in the community.
After each harvest, I feel a joy that goes beyond the tastiness of the fruit. I’ve been witness to the bounty of urban trees — our trees. And even in a big city, there is always plenty when we share.
