Harvesting Futures

What is Harvesting Futures?

Most backyard fruit tree owners can’t or don’t use all the fruit produced on their property. There’s an increasing need in our community to feed the hungry & for access to fresh produce. At the same time, hundreds of youth struggle to become productive, self-sufficient, contributing citizens.

In keeping with the Center for Human Services’ mission –“To change lives & build futures through programs that strengthen & support youth & families”, we developed Harvesting Futures- a gleaning project focusing on youth development & entrepreneurship. The project embraces the concept of Community Youth Development- youth & adults working together to create social change. Our purpose is two-fold:

1) to engage youth in their community by developing life skills, job skills & self-sufficiency

2) to increase use of & access to fresh produce for low income populations in our community.

Getting Started

We are launching a pilot project in January 2012 targeting backyard growers with citrus trees in 2 Modesto neighborhoods. We need volunteers (youth & adults) to help make this project a success.

Volunteers will receive an orientation on harvesting techniques & safety. We’ll schedule pre-visits & gleaning events with the backyard growers. After we harvest, some of the produce will be set aside for the owner & volunteers & the rest will be donated to local food banks.

As part of our pilot project, we plan to establish a social enterprise partnership with a local business & use a portion of the fruit we have harvested to make a value-added product (i.e. marmalade) to sell locally. We plan to expand our harvesting efforts to include other fruits & vegetables as well as develop more products that will teach our youth volunteers job/business skills as well as help sustain our project.