Click on one of the following items for quick navigation:
1) Register and view upcoming events on our volunteer portal 2) Sign up for group volunteering 3) See list of repeat volunteer opportunities
Thanks for your interest in volunteering with us! We love all of our volunteers, and would love to see you join us! City Fruit volunteers give their time in many ways to help support the mission of promoting the cultivation of urban fruit in order to nourish people, prevent food waste, and build community. We provide on-site introduction to tools and practices and also welcome experienced volunteers who can share their perspectives as well. Volunteers who participate in three volunteer events will receive a certificate of appreciation, and those who join for five or more events in the calendar year will receive a free City Fruit t-shirt!
Click on the link below to register as a volunteer or to see our list of scheduled volunteer events.
Group Volunteers
Are you part of a girl/boy scout troop, 4H Club, religious group, college club, or other community-organized group looking to volunteer? Depending on the season, we have different orchard-based volunteer opportunities, in addition to seasonal jam-making/baking opportunities. We’d love to hear from you! You can submit an interest form by clicking on the button below. If you are looking to volunteer on a specific day please indicate that in the form and we will do our best to accommodate!
We also offer one-time, private team-building opportunities for corporate groups that can be hosted during the work week. Click here to find out more!
What does volunteering with City Fruit look like?
One-off Volunteer Opportunities
If you’re interested in a volunteer opportunity, we host orchard stewardship work parties throughout the year! These tend to last 2-4 hours on Saturday mornings (and weekday evenings during the summer) and include:
Winter Pruning
Spring Mulching
Spring Tree-planting
Summer Pruning
Thinning and Fruit Bagging/Netting
Summer and Fall Harvest
Fall Orchard Clean-up and Mulching
Winter Integrated Pest Management
Repeat Volunteer Opportunities
Repeat volunteers are those whose work may extend beyond one day or event. Some of these opportunities are available year-round, while others are harvest-specific:
Farmers Market and Fruit-For-All Farmstand Tabling: Tabling events generally fall on Wednesday and Friday evenings or Saturday mid-mornings from late July to October. Volunteers support staff in distributing fruit to community members, while also sharing about City Fruit’s work and ways that community members can get tree care support. We ask volunteers to sign up for at least three tabling dates.
Door-to-door flier distribution: Flexible opportunity, May-October. Volunteers are asked to distribute door-tag fliers in their own neighborhoods whenever they are out walking or see trees with fruit in their neighborhoods.
Language volunteers: Flexible, year-round opportunity. We are in the process of translating our website and other City Fruit information and training materials into the most commonly spoken languages in Seattle outside of English – Vietnamese, Mandarin, Tagalog, Spanish, Amharic, Somali, and more. Volunteers would help translate or read over translated materials to provide feedback on translations.
Peer-to-peer fundraisers: Flexible, year-round. Volunteers may participate in our GiveBig campaign in April/May or may also create their own social media fundraiser for us at any time! If you have any ideas to help, please email [email protected]. Thanks to peer-to-peer fundraisers last year, we raised nearly $15,000! We thank all of our volunteers and donors for the generous support over the years!
Neighborhood Ambassador: Weekdays during harvest season (July-Sept). As a volunteer, you would assist our harvest team in gleaning from City Fruit registered fruit trees located within your neighborhood. It is a great way to further develop leadership and harvest skills! For a full description of this role, click here.
Interested in learning more? Contact City Fruit’s Community Growth and Impact Manager, Tiare Gill, at [email protected].