Donate fruit from your trees to foodbank (From Swindon Advertiser)

Donate fruit from your trees to foodbank

6:00pm Wednesday 5th September 2012 in News By Emma Dunn

PEOPLE with fruit trees in their gardens are being urged to donate their produce to those in need.

Roxanna Cox, one of the organisers of a new project in the town called Crop Share, is hoping people will either collect the fruit themselves or let a team of volunteers come and pick it.

The produce will be distributed to people in need at Swindon Foodbank and, if it is successful, it could be distributed at children’s centres and care homes too.

Roxanna, one of the founders of Penhill ’s Community Connectors, which is running the scheme, said: “I am hoping to reach out to people in the surrounding area who have got fruit trees. At the moment, plums are ripe. Apples and pears will come in in a couple of weeks.

“The Foodbank has agreed to allow me to distribute the fruit from their drop in point.

“We have got plenty of volunteers who can help pick the fruit.

“Lots of people have got gardens with fruit that just goes to waste. They take what they need and the rest is wasted. We want to make use of it.

“If they want to pick it themselves it is helpful but if they are not capable or don’t have time we can get the volunteers to pick it.”

Roxanna is a founder member of the Penhill Community Orchard, which was planted by local volunteers in 2003, and said she has been inspired by the success of the project.

“For the last few years we have had every apple taken, every single one has been eaten,” she said.

“Volunteers planted 200 apple trees with the idea of open access to free fruit for local people. It has worked really well.

“With the ethos of the Foodbank and the ethos of the harvest festival, I am hoping that lots of people will donate.”

Swindon Foodbank supplies short-term food relief to those in need. The Community Connectors in Penhill recruits volunteers and find out their interests.

“We find out what their skills are and what they could share with other people, and we make connections between them,” said Roxanna. The fruit will be distributed from Foodbank’s distribution point at John Moulton Hall, which is open on Tuesdays from 10am until noon.

A voucher will need to be obtained first from one of the appropriate agencies in Swindon.

To donate fruit or volunteer to help out email roxanna.cox@sky.com or phone 07530530112. To contact Swindon Foodbank call Lee Thompson on 07932108732.