Fruit trees for adoption

Community-based program aims to provide fresh fruit

Jane Beetem is excited at the prospect to find volunteers to care for and pick fruit from trees belonging to people who are unable to do the work but don't want to cut down the trees. They can also help care for them and receive the overflow if the crop is particularly bountiful.
Jane Beetem is excited at the prospect to find volunteers to care for and pick fruit from trees belonging to people who are unable to do the work but don't want to cut down the trees. They can also help care for them and receive the overflow if the crop is particularly bountiful.

The Jefferson City-area Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities (HSHC) collaborative hopes to provide more fresh fruit to low-income individuals through a new initiative.

Its Adopt-a-Fruit-Tree program connects residents who own fruit trees with volunteers who are willing to manage the trees and harvest the fruit, which then goes to food pantries, daycares, schools and more. The program encourages residents to donate unused fruit in their yards, instead of allowing it to fall and rot.

"There are a lot of really cool things working together," Ashley Varner, HSHC community coordinator, said. "You have the environment that's affected in a positive way and you have people in need getting access to (fruit) that's pretty close to organic, that's not being treated with pesticides and herbicides and chemicals."

The idea came from Jane Beetem, a retiree of the Department of Natural Resources who manages the Samaritan Center gardens. Beetem wanted to find a way to offer natural foods at food pantries, where distributed items are typically canned or boxed and full of sodium and added sugars.

Individuals who are food insecure are twice as likely to suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure and hypertension, according to a University of Missouri researcher.

"So, I wondered if there was a way we could provide locally-produced healthy foods in addition to the boxed meals - the things we have to use," Beetem said about the inception of the program.

As a part of its mission, HSHC aims to give low-income individuals access to healthy foods. It targets three Jefferson City elementary schools and Callaway Hills Elementary in Holts Summit - all with free and reduced lunch rates of 60 percent or higher.

While searching online, Beetem said she found other food pantries planting fruit trees or harvesting existing ones. Fresh fruit through the Adopt-a-Fruit-Tree program will supplement and enhance food pantry offerings, she said. Beetem said that the fruit can also be canned or turned into other foods, such as using apples for applesauce.

Volunteers can sign up online to be fruit tree managers, and they can have different roles. They can choose to maintain a tree and harvest the fruit, or find locations to plant fruit trees for future harvest. The University of Missouri Extension has offered to train volunteers.

Beetem has already recruited her neighbors, who own two apple and two pear trees.

Eventually, HSHC would like to involve students, assigning them each a fruit tree they can grow with.

For more information or to sign up, go to vols.pt/5H8bHW.