A new Carshalton volunteer group is bringing people together to harvest unwanted fruit from gardens and public spaces and share it with local food banks and community groups.
There’s a surprising amount of fruit growing all around Carshalton — and much of it never gets eaten.
Now a new volunteer group is hoping to make sure more of it ends up being enjoyed rather than left to fall and rot.
Carshalton Fruit Pickers was started by retired charity worker Anne Jones (pictured above), after she noticed last year how much fruit was going to waste in local gardens.
“I started the Carshalton Fruit Pickers after noticing a lot of fruit in people’s gardens last year not being used — it seemed such a waste!” she told Secret Carshalton.
The idea stayed with Anne after she met someone at last year’s Ecofair who was already involved in a similar project.
Then, earlier this year, she spotted an opportunity to take things further. London National Park City was offering training for people wanting to establish community fruit-harvesting projects.
Anne attended her first meeting on 3 June and the group has already grown to more than 50 people in its WhatsApp community.
Now the timing is particularly good. August and September are when apples and pears begin to ripen in large numbers, meaning the group is heading into its busiest period.
The idea is simple: volunteers help harvest fruit from gardens where owners either don’t have the time, ability or inclination to pick it themselves, helping prevent perfectly good food from going to waste.
Fruit can then be shared with local food banks and community groups. The group can also collect fruit from street and public trees as well as private gardens.
A growing movement
It isn’t an entirely new idea. Organisations such as Abundance have been doing similar work for years, while there are established groups in places including Wimbledon.
But London National Park City’s training programme has helped encourage a number of new groups to get started across London this year.
Anne says she has also heard of similar schemes abroad, including one in Germany.
For her, though, the focus is firmly local.
“This is taking up quite a bit of time at the moment as it’s the first year,” she said. “But I’m hoping to rope in some of my volunteers to help with the admin in future years. I’ve got my eye out for which ones!”
With the main fruit-picking season now approaching, the new group is looking for more people to get involved.
If you have fruit in your garden that you know you won’t be able to harvest, or would like to volunteer to help with the picking, Carshalton Fruit Pickers is keen to hear from you.
It’s a simple idea: make use of what is already growing in Carshalton, help people who might otherwise struggle to harvest it, and stop good local fruit going to waste.
Want to get involved?
Carshalton Fruit Pickers is a new community initiative and is currently building its network of volunteers as the autumn harvest approaches.
If you would like to volunteer or have fruit that needs picking, contact the group at Carshaltonfruit@gmail.com.
