Urban Harvesting

Urban harvesting is a great way to get involved with gleaning if you live in a city or town. During the Autumn, hundreds of tonnes of fruit go to waste every year in public parks and private gardens. Urban harvesting involves small groups of volunteers harvesting fruit who then distribute the produce to local schools, community projects and kitchens to prevent the fruit from going to waste.

We are not currently running any urban harvesting this year, but get in touch if you are keen to set up an urban harvesting project in your local area.

If you live in London and have a tree, there are several projects who may be able to use your apples:

  • The Orchard Project, who are developing a cider and juice-making enterprise to support their excellent work restoring and maintaining orchards in cities throughout the UK
  • Foodcycle, who use surplus food to provide meals to people at risk of social isolation and food poverty.
  • OLIO – The Food Sharing Revolution, who have developed a free app that connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away.
  • The Castle Climbing Centre have a one-acre organic community garden, and we will be co-hosting an apple pressing day to make juice and cider with them this autumn.

There are also other active London-based groups that harvest fruit, such as Abundance London and Kensal to Kilburn Fruit Harvesters.

I’m a fruit tree owner, but I don’t live in London.

There are many other harvesting groups across the UK under the umbrella of The Abundance Network, who may be able to help – contact your local group here.

 

 

 

How else can I get involved in the fight against food waste?

Feedback are campaigning to end food waste at every level of the food system. The Gleaning Network are always looking for volunteers to help us harvest the thousands of tonnes of fresh fruit and veg going to waste on UK farms every year – you can sign up to be notified about upcoming gleaning days in your region here. You can also find out more about Feedback’s other campaigns on our website here.