Fruitanthropy
Love this -- an LA organization, foodforward.org, will come pick the fruit off your trees to feed the hungry. Fruit donation line (to ask them to come pick your tree or trees): 818.530.4125
Related: Wharton School's Dr. Adam Grant's wonderful book, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success
Also related, my book, "Good Manners For Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck," which you can pre-order at Amazon, and which includes ways we can improve our own lives by making the world a better, kinder place.
Am I the only one who's worried something stupid will happen like someone's allergic to the pesticides and there's a law suit?
NicoleK at April 12, 2014 12:53 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/04/fruitanthropy.html#comment-4481166">comment from NicoleKI find it unlikely.
Amy Alkon
at April 12, 2014 1:06 PM
Another misguided charity by those who cant do math.
They will burn more gas, and more man hours on this good deed than can possibly be justified by the return. I predict that If they calculated the transport costs, everyone involved would be better off buying fifty bucks worth of fruit at their local grocery store, and donating that.
In addition, raw fruit needs to be processed to have any shelf life at all. More time, and more bucks.
Next up, they will go out and sheer wild goats, and give poor people the mohair so they can knit their own sweaters.
Isab at April 12, 2014 3:36 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/04/fruitanthropy.html#comment-4481570">comment from IsabI met one of the volunteers. They aren't driving from one tree in the Valley to another in Santa Monica. They hit an area. Watch the video here because you sneer that it's a big waste.
http://foodforward.org/about/
Amy Alkon
at April 12, 2014 3:53 PM
Why not just sort through all the food thrown away at LAUSD?
KateC at April 12, 2014 4:08 PM
I met one of the volunteers. They aren't driving from one tree in the Valley to another in Santa Monica. They hit an area. Watch the video here because you sneer that it's a big waste.
http://foodforward.org/about/
Posted by: Amy Alkon at April 12, 2014 3:53 PM
I don't need to watch the video. Just like I don't need to watch the video of the Palestinians protesting in Gaza. It gives me no insight as to who is footing the bill for collecting all the 'free' fruit.
I am a business, and tax advisor. I know how thin the margins are for a fruit orchard as a business. You have to have a lot of one kind of tree, in a very small area, and usually a big subsidy from the government to stay in business.
This is why most produce sold in the US, is now coming from Mexico and South America. Lower production costs.
Picking a lemon tree in one block, and an few avocados a few hundred yards away, even if you could sell the fruit would never clear any excess above the sunk costs of the picking and the transportation.
They rely on free labor, and donated transportation, and operating expenses to give the illusion of value added.
Isab at April 12, 2014 4:27 PM
So, the hungry aren't getting enough fruit?
Also: why is this not commercially viable?
Radwaste at April 12, 2014 4:28 PM
Quite frankly, it sounds more like making home-owners feel better about "not wasting fruit" than it does about feeding the hungry.
But, if folks want to do this, and I'm not footing the bill (either directly or through tax dollars) then have at it.
Charles at April 12, 2014 8:32 PM
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