Volunteer Newsletter, April 14, 2005

 

MORE CATCH UP HARVESTS:  Mt. View 4/16 & San Jose 4/19

Remember the rain?  Remember the cold & flu season?

We're not immune to the forces of nature -- so we're putting a few more harvests together to catch up before the fruit really starts to drop.  Your help is really needed right now, so please let joni@villageharvest.org know if you can join in. 

Saturday, April 16th
9:00am - 12:00pm
Mt. View Community Services Agency
204 Stierlin Road, Mountain View

Tuesday, April 19th & Tuesday, May 3rd
8:30am - 3:00 pm
Second Harvest Food Bank
750 Curtner Avenue, San Jose

Instructions for harvesting volunteers:

  • Dress in layers with long sleeves and comfortable shoes... Long sleeves are to protect your arms from branches.
  • Bring gloves and hand pruners. 
  • Be prepared to drive or carpool... If you have a large car or truck, it's always appreciated  
  • Feel free to bring a bag/box to take home fruit for yourself. Tree ripened fruit from Santa Clara Valley... it doesn't get any better than this!
  • See our Volunteer FAQ's for more information, especially regarding children.

 

VILLAGE HARVEST IN BERKELEY

Village Harvest and Spiral Gardens are teaming together to start a Harvesting for the Hungry project in Berkeley.  There has long been interest from Berkeley to bring Village Harvest to their community, so we're taking the plunge.  We will be starting with the citrus season in April/May, then plums in July, apples in September, and persimmons in November.  The goal is to harvest 10k the first year.  If you're in the Berkeley area and interested in pitching in, please let us know.  Also, share the news with your friends and family in the Berkeley area as well.  Note that for the first year, we'll be limiting ourselves to Berkeley and to things that ripen in April/May, July, September, and November.

Some introductions:

  • The Spiral Gardens Community Food Security Project promotes healthy communities by encouraging the productive use of city soil and improving access to fresh local produce.  Elements of Spiral Gardens include:
    • a collective food production garden where the harvest is shared amongst the homeless, elderly and the volunteers who grow it.
    • a sustainably farmed urban nursery specializing in plants for food, medicine, and ecological restoration.
    • A low-cost produce stand featuring fresh food from regional farmers
    • A regular schedule of free public classes in this new outdoor education site.  These classes are a way for people to share knowledge about self-sufficiency through gardening, skills for good eating habits, and tools to build a vibrant community.

    Please visit Spiral Gardens at their urban garden center at the corner of Sacramento and Oregon or virtually at www.spiralgardens.org

Ela Harrison will be training to be the coordinator for this project.  Ela is from England and currently a student at UC Berkeley.  You can reach Ela soon at ela@spiralgardens.org.  In the meanwhile if you're interested in joining in on the Berkeley project, contact joni@villageharvest.org .

 

COMMUNITY INTEGRATED WORK PROGRAM

Some of the lesser known Village Harvest harvesting teams are with the Community Integrated Work Program.  This is a work program for disabled adults that started volunteering their time to harvest fruit in November 2002 and have continued ever since.  There are now 2 CIWP groups that harvest a fruit tree every Tuesday and Thursday and donate the fruit to Sacred Heart CSA.  In 2004, two small/medium trees a week amounted to 12,795 lbs of fruit!

The CIWP groups enjoy being outdoors and being able to give back to the community that they depend upon so much.  One of the groups was featured in a Mercury News article April 2003.  At that time they had just gotten started and were harvesting 100 lbs a day.  Just look at how far they've come!

 

VILLAGE HARVEST TO DATE:        36,707 lbs!

That's over 95,000 servings of citrus -- a lot of Vitamin C to help keep folks healthy during the season of colds and flu's. 

 

UPCOMING VILLAGE HARVEST EVENTS:

  • Please RSVP for the dates that you're available to help. 
  • Click on the links for a map to the location.
  • In the schedule above, "SHFB" in the schedule below is Second Harvest Food Bank, 750 Curtner Avenue, San Jose.
  • The CIWP team has expanded and is continuing to go out every Tuesday and Thursday.
  • Menlo Park team goes out as convenient for their schedules.  Contact joni@villageharvest.org to join in.
Date / Day Time Event Meeting Place Notes
April 14, Thursday 2:45 pm - 6:00 pm Small Citrus Orchard Harvest w/ Youth Corps Meet 2:45 pm, Mt. View CSA Harvesting small citrus orchard in Los Gatos
April 16, Saturday 8:30 am - 12:30 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, Sunnyvale Meet 9:00 am, Mt. View CSA

 

 Make up event from last weekend.  Contact karen@villageharvest.org if you'd like to join in.
April 19, Tuesday 8:30 am - 3:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, W. San Jose, Citrus. Meet 8:30 am, SHFB Volunteer Room.  You must RSVP for this event and be registered as a SHFB volunteer
April 24, Sunday 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm Earth Day at Westwind Barn 27210 Altamont Road, Los Altos Hills We'll be making our VH preserves available for sale.  The last of the summer fruit preserves and the first of this year's marmalade.
April 24, Sunday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, Mountain View w/ Artemis. Meet 9:30 am, Mt. View CSA Contact karen@villageharvest.org if you'd like to join in.
April 26, Tuesday 8:30 am - 3:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, Cambrian, Citrus Meet 8:30 am, SHFB Volunteer Room.  You must RSVP for this event and be registered as a SHFB volunteer
April 27, Wednesday 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, E. San Jose w/ Morgan Hill Team Contact joni@villageharvest.org to join in. This will be the first project for the newly formed Morgan Hill team.
May 3, Tuesday 8:30 am - 3:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, Willow Glen, Citrus. Meet 8:30 am, SHFB Volunteer Room.  You must RSVP for this event and be registered as a SHFB volunteer
May 8, Sunday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, Mountain View. Meet 9:00 am, Mt. View CSA Contact karen@villageharvest.org if you'd like to join in.
May 10, Tuesday 8:30 am - 3:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, Willow Glen, Citrus. Meet 8:30 am, SHFB Volunteer Room.  You must RSVP for this event and be registered as a SHFB volunteer
May 20, Friday 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm Preserving from the Garden Interest Group - Preserving Flowers and Scents Contact joni@villageharvest.org to join in. Varietal Rose Jelly & more!
May 22, Sunday 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, Mountain View. Meet 9:00 am, Mt. View CSA Contact karen@villageharvest.org if you'd like to join in.
May 24, Tuesday 8:30 am - 3:00 pm Community Fruit Harvesting, Willow Glen, Citrus. Meet 8:30 am, SHFB Volunteer Room.  You must RSVP for this event and be registered as a SHFB volunteer
Remember that the best tasting, tree ripened fruit goes home with the volunteers, as it will be too ripe to go through distribution at the Second Harvest Food Bank. Perfect for people who like to make preserves. All dates subject to change based upon ripening and weather.

OTHER ORGANIZATION EVENTS:

  • The following are events by other organizations that may be of interest to Village Harvest volunteers.
Date / Day Time Event Meeting Place Notes
April 24, Saturday 2:00 pm - 5:30 pm Almost Eden Garden Work Party 701 East Meadow Drive, Palo Alto Help grow organic produce for homeless and low-income families. 

Contact Pamela Chesavage at (650) 504-1811

 

Cheers,
Joni Diserens
Village Harvest
 joni@villageharvest.org
 www.villageharvest.org
(650) 740-7725

 

Subscribe / Unsubscribe to this Newsletter:

You have been added to this list because of past participation or interest. Please REPLY to this email to be removed from this distribution list.