Our Crowdfunding Groups
In a graduate class for Health Planning, we studied the impact of the built environment on the health of residents in Avenida Guadalupe, a neighborhood near the downtown UTSA campus. We were identifying food deserts, a condition the US Department of Agriculture defines as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy and affordable food. The USDA has estimated 23.5 million people live in food deserts and more than half of these residents are low-income.
While walking the streets, we noticed many of the homes had mature fruit trees growing in their yards. This opened our eyes to a cultural phenomenon in the older communities of San Antonio. Our urban neighborhoods are home to an abundance of established orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime, fig and pomegranate trees, just to name a few. Many of these trees produce more fruit than one household can consume and this fruit goes to waste. In some of these homes, the residents are unable to pick their fruit due to age, disabilities or busy lives. Our solution is a harvesting program, The San Antonio Fruit Tree Project, which we modeled after similar programs in other major metropolitan cities. We canvas neighborhoods, knock on doors of homeowners with visible fruit trees, and ask them if we can register their tree with our organization. We then schedule a harvest, round up volunteers, pick the fruit tree and deliver it to the San Antonio Food Bank, whom we have partnered with to distribute this fruit to a family in need.
With the San Antonio Fruit Tree Project, fighting food insecurity is a community effort. The generosity of tree owners, the volunteers who harvest fruit and the organizations who connect that fruit to a dinner table all come together in a network that advocates for healthy food choices for everyone. Our hope is to encourage San Antonio to grow this existing resource with more fruit trees in more yards making this city more egalitarian, more healthy and more sustainable!
Our program builds community while creating sustainable food networks for our city. We are a volunteer run organization composed of community members and students from UTSA College of Construction, Architecture, and Planning. We foster the idea that we all have something to give. With food insecurity a major issue for Texas, our mission is no good fruit should go to waste!
Be a part of our mission! With your gifts, the San Antonio Fruit Tree Project will be able to grow our organization. Your donations will help us buy equipment necessary for harvesting fruit, help get the message out to more neighborhoods (=more harvests) and help us create an online resource for San Antonio. Your donations allow us to continue working together to fight hunger in San Antonio.
Help create awareness of the critical and growing need for access to fresh local fruit. Please share this mission with people you know, and help put fresh fruit in the hands of someone in need. Email family and friends, and share our project through social media. Awareness of our project is the key to rallying support!
Your contribution to our program helps make San Antonio a better place. We are grateful for your help in whatever capacity you can give!
‘No one is more cherished in this world than someone who lightens the burden of another.’ - Author Unknown
Thank you for your support!