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Health & Fitness

Feeding the Hungry: Food Forward Expands to San Gabriel Valley

In just 5 years, Food Forward has recovered nearly two million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables from our backyards, gardens, farmers markets, and wholesale warehouses, connecting this produce to over 65 food banks and direct service local agencies across Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and Orange Counties. Now the volunteer-powered non-profit is expanding its reach in the San Gabriel Valley to further serve Southern California’s most vulnerable.

By launching its backyard harvest program in areas such as Pasadena, San Marino and Arcadia, Food Forward will work with property owners to donate their excess fruits and vegetables to local food pantries. Food Forward volunteers have harvested from hundreds of properties with 100% of the gleaned produce going to feed the hungry.

Fruit harvesting is not new to the San Gabriel Valley. In 2010, the high-school student powered Fruit For All group was formed by brothers Jackson and Zach Selby who began donating the fruits of their backyard harvests to the Foothill Unity Center. As the Selby brothers headed off to college, it was crucial that their work in the San Gabriel Valley to continue, and the partnership with Food Forward was formed.

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This collaboration will contribute to Food Forward’s success in its five-year history. To date, the non-profit has fed over one million people in Southern California, where one in six Los Angeles residents are unsure about where their next meal will come from. With Americans throwing away $165 million dollars of food yearly, Food Forward’s recovery programs are working to combat this waste of food and water resources, as well as greenhouse gas emissions at local landfills from decomposition.

Food Forward began in 2009 with backyard harvests and has expanded its sources for fresh food by launching a Farmers Market Recovery Program in 2012 and a Wholesale Recovery Program in 2014, in addition to offering several food enthusiast classes and education programs, such as the Foodsteader class series, the Can It! Academy, and the Youth Service Program.

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What is needed most to continue these great programs are dedicated volunteers and homeowners with mature trees willing to donate their fruit.  The best way to make a difference in your community is to sign up at foodforward.org/events, or email volunteer@foodforward.org.

Learn more about how to register your fruit trees for gleaning and more at foodforward.org.

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