Fruits in Toronto can get really expensive — and are often disappointing in taste and quality.
That’s why Not Far From The Tree‘s harvests are a sweet deal. The Toronto charity, NFFTT for short, connects volunteers with fruit trees that need to be picked all across the city. Everything that’s collected is split three ways:
- a third is distributed among volunteer pickers,
- a third goes back to the tree owners
- and a third is donated to food banks, community fridges and local non-profits.
NFFTT launched in 2008, and since then, more than 4,000 volunteers have helped pick over 300,000 pounds of fruits, a third of which has gone to over 100,000 community groups across Toronto, according to Nat Karpovskaia, interim project director and program manager.
“But the memorable impact we witness can’t be measured by a calculator. It’s every simple joyful giggle as someone heard the ‘plink plink’ of mulberries falling onto a tarp held up by a team of volunteers; it’s every gasp of delight as someone tastes a locally grown apricot we share with them while tabling at a farmers’ market; and it’s every jar of preserves made lovingly by our volunteers alongside the story of how it came to be,” Karpovskaia told The Green Line in an email.
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