Vancouver Fruit Tree Project: Request for Volunteers

The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project is looking for both volunteer pickers and volunteer pick leaders. Climbing trees is not required! Come meet like minded people, have fun and make a difference. Read below for role descriptions.

Volunteer Picker

Volunteer pickers will receive weekly emails regarding the upcoming picks they are invited to participate in. They RSVP with the pick coordinator about any that they would like to attend. There is no minimum requirement for participation, it’s just whatever you can make it out to. At the picks the pickers will use picking poles and orchard ladders to work in a group to pick the tree, sorting the fruit into boxes for delivery to our community partners such as daycares, neighbourhood houses, food banks, and community centres. Volunteers can help with equipment set up and take down as well. Picks usually take between 1-3 hours and happen mostly on weekends and week-day evenings and sometimes during weekdays.

Volunteer Pick Leader

The Vancouver Fruit Tree Project is looking for pick leaders who can commit to leading one pick per week. The pick coordinator will try to schedule you for picks in your neighbourhood but you may be asked to lead a pick in another area of town. The pick coordinator will arrange a team of volunteers and will set up a community partner for the fruit to be donated to. The pick leaders are responsible for coordinating transportation to and from the pick, bringing and returning the equipment, delivering the fruit to the community partner, and of course, leading the volunteers in a fun and safe pick. Having your own transportation (with a roof rack for ladders) a benefit but is not required, as we can set you up with a car sharing membership through the VFTP.

Contact Liz Perkins
Coordinator of Picks
Vancouver Fruit Tree Project
604-708-1987
liz(at)vancouverfruittree.com

This Canada Day, Say "Hi"

Our conversation started simply enough, I was walking by and she was weeding. After exchanging "hellos" I learned here name was Kerry and that she had recently moved from Alberta.

“I’m so surprised at what grows here, like these grapes.” Since April she has tended her MOBY Community Garden plot on 11th, just off Commercial Drive. The gardener before had planted grapes which are now nearly four feet high. Other green shoots are sprouting up too. After I took her photo she laughed, “Maybe someone can tell me which ones are the weeds”.

Community gardens, children and dogs; I’ve begun to feel that these are the essentials for a convivial neighbourhood. Dog owners group around while their dogs run, strangers talk to babies and then, maybe, their parents and gardeners with a bit of dirt on their knees seem like easy people to smile at. The small act of weeding near the sidewalk or in a community garden can be the beginning of a whole new friendship. My tomato plants came from 2 different neighbours, both of whom I met while passing the time, talking about gardening.

This Canada Day, say “hi” to a neighbour. You never know who you’ll meet. Erin Nichols