Abundance Project
Do you hate seeing fresh fruit going to waste?
Abundance is an urban harvesting project which identifies fruit growing locally that would otherwise go to waste, and redistributes it to charities or community groups that will make good use of it.
We collect the best surplus fruit and give this away to residents of York through various not-for-profit community projects and foodbanks. Even damaged fruit and windfalls can be sometimes collected and used for preserves and juicing.
We’d love to hear from people who love fruit and hate to see it wasted! Email us or see our latest updates on the Abundance Facebook page
How you can help Edible York with Abundance?
– please join us and help harvesting – tell your friends! We rely on volunteers to pick, sort and deliver fruit (mainly apples) across York.
Q1. Do you know of Excess fruit in gardens or public spaces?
Pass on your local knowledge of excess fruit –
- Do you have a fruit tree in your garden that is so prolific you need to give away some of the crop?
- Do you have a neighbour who would like help picking their fruit trees?
- Is there a fruit tree in a public place near to you that is neglected and the fruit goes to waste each autumn?
Q2. Volunteer and help us rescue fruit!
If you want to join us outside picking lovely fresh fruit for an hour or so, we would love to hear from you. We had about 40 people who joined us picking apples last year, and we keep in touch with picking opportunities each week during the season (August to October).
Contact us on email (abundance@edibleyork.org.uk) or Facebook and we can let you know where and when the latest picks are. (Picks are run evenings, weekends and during the week, so hopefully there will be a convenient time for you.
Abundance has its own dedicated Facebook page to keep volunteers updated about picking activities, or we can add you to the WhatsApp group if you are keen to hear about every scheduled pick. Some users prefer contact via email or text which we try to support if they do not have a smart phone.
Q3. Do you know of people or groups who can use fruit?
If you know of great community groups, events, or projects that can use some of this abundant harvest then definitely chat to them and let us know.
- A community cooking project
- A foodbank
- School, playgroup or nursery
- Local event where fruit would be welcome
- A Community Centre where we can leave a “Help Yourself” box of apples
… or other project that would like to receive free donations of fresh fruit in the Autumn? Let us know!
We have ‘Apple HQ’ in Salisbury Road, close to the Leeman Road Orchard and beside Minster Vets. This is a large locked container where Abundance volunteers can collect equipment and drop off the fruit prior to distribution or juicing.
Please share, if you would like some leaflets to hand out let us know as we have lots available!
Do you only pick apples?
We will help with most types of fruit picking, if we can find homes for the fruit. Pears, plums, damsons, and maybe even walnuts, medlar and quince are offered occasionally, but some things are easier to find takers for than others. Give us a call or drop us an email with the details and we will try and help!
We also have an Edible Swaps and Shares group on Facebook called York Edible Exchange where people can offer anything from chillis, to marrows, to crab apples and find other unusual fruit and connect up givers and takers across York.
Here are some yummy pears we collected one year:
Apple HQ – our permanent storage container – beautifully painted!
A fantastic collaboration between a local artist and a local primary school produced a beautiful design and was painted in 2018! You can’t miss us!
