And just like that, another successful harvest season at City Fruit comes to a close (brownie points to those who recognize that Sex and the City reference). This summer, although stressful and hectic as each season can be, was a major upgrade in numerous ways.
Most notably, we restructured our scheduling system to be more streamlined and user-friendly. Instead of having multiple pages to fill out on numerous websites, we were able to create a single page where tree owners could provide their necessary information and pick a harvest date all in one. This reduced so much confusion and remedial interceptions from staff.
Secondly, we committed to 25 Fruit-For-All events with numerous City Fruit partners, such as Farestart, Neighborhood House, Seattle Housing Authority, and more. That is about 6-7 more events than we typically do on average, and from those events we distributed over 11,900 servings (2,100 lbs) of free fruit to individuals and families. A huge thank-you to our partners this summer for collaborating with us to make this fruit accessible to so many people!
2025 Fruit-For-All Partners:
– African Community Housing Development (Delridge Farmers Market)
– Campbell Hill Elementary
– Cultivate South Park
– Delridge Neighborhood Development Association
– Farestart
– Garfield Community Center
– Neighborhood House
– Rainier Beach Action Coalition
– Shark Garden
Lastly, we had 5 wonderful interns and 1 volunteer harvester who were pivotal to our harvest program. Whether it was harvesting from tree owners, getting fruit to our community and diversion partners, or distributing free fruit at our Fruit-For-All events– they did it all. If you were a participating tree owner with us this summer, you likely encountered Joel, Pasha, Jamie, Eva, Amelia, and/or Ozi! We were lucky enough to have a couple of them stick with us through mid-October this year, which helped us greatly. Typically interns tend to roll off in late September and return to school, and the brunt of late season harvesting responsibilities fall on City Fruit staff who still have other full-time responsibilities to manage. It makes a huge difference to have that extra support! City Fruit would have no impact at all without the dedication and hard work that our interns provide every year. We are oh so grateful!
A particular area of struggle that we face year after year as we continue to grow is accommodating the hundreds of harvest requests we receive from gracious tree owners looking to donate their fruit. Being a small staff of 3, along with 4-5 seasonal interns and only 2 harvest vehicles, we often have to say no to fruit that we’d love to take because we simply cannot do so without sacrificing our time and wellbeing. Even though we get more and more interested tree owners every year looking to donate their fruit, we cannot accommodate every person who registers with us. We are appreciative that so many people with such a valuable food resource are eager to share their wealth with community, and we are always committed to harvesting as much as we can from each tree we are working with.
With that being said, if you’d like to see City Fruit expand in years to come, i.e. hiring more seasonal harvesters, buying more harvest vehicles, moving to a larger space to accommodate more fruit, etc., please consider making a donation or becoming a member today to help us be able to harvest and donate more fruit!
Now, the fruit of it all…
In 2025, we harvested a total of 33,388 lbs of fruit. Of that fruit, we donated 17,435 lbs of fruit to 54 food bank, community based organization, and meal program partners, which equates to 98,682 servings of fruit! To learn more about how we calculate servings of fruit, click here. As for our diversion partners, we distributed 12,242 lbs of fruit between 25 partners, which consisted of cideries, bakeries, schools, community organizations, and individuals. Typically the fruit we divert to these partners are apples with pest damage, with some exceptions depending on availability and what’s requested. With apples being our most harvested fruit, our diversion partners are incredibly valuable as they allow us to harvest damaged, but still usable fruit that would otherwise go to waste.
To see a list of all our 2025 partners, click here.
A quick note– you may have noticed a discrepancy between the pounds harvested and pounds donated & diverted (3,711 to be exact). This is because, despite our efforts, we succumb to human error every year as a small team of 3 full-time staff trying to keep track of thousands of pounds of fruit coming in and out of our office, meaning that some crates get missed in the head count… We also get very hungry doing all this hard work, so admittedly some of it ended up in the stomachs of staff!
As for our goals for next year, we’ll continue to tailor our harvest scheduling processes and communications to be more streamlined and efficient, and continue to get as much fruit to as many partners as we can! We’re already starting to plan for the 2026 harvest season and are hopeful for it to be a fruitful season (pun always intended).
See you then 🙂
Riley Wilmart, Program Manager
(She/they)