When City Fruit first started, we harvested fruit from the Rainier Valley and Phinney/Greenwood and then moved into West Seattle. A few years later, we expanded into Wallingford and Fremont and then Northeast Seattle. In 2017, we added Queen Anne and Magnolia, bringing the total number of Seattle neighborhoods served to 8. Each year, this growth has meant more trees, more fruit, more volunteers, more partners, and more families served.
To mark 10 years of serving Seattle, we want to go even bigger, because we believe everyone in Seattle should be able to reap the benefit of healthy fruit trees and an abundance of good fruit to share. So, in 2018, we will launch our biggest expansion yet – we will grow to serve ALL of Seattle. As part of our Harvest for All campaign, we will now serve the Central District, Northgate, Capitol Hill and downtown.
Not only does this expansion represent incredible potential to dramatically increase the amount of fruit that we are able to harvest and share during the harvest, but it represents an opportunity to connect more of our neighbors to this city’s land and this city’s local food system.
We’re already busy working on developing a calendar of outreach events and community celebrations to mark this expansion.
- Throughout May, June, and July: we will be tabling at the farmers markets in Capitol Hill, Columbia City, Queen Anne, Magnolia, West Seattle, Phinney Ridge, and Lake City
- On June 9th, we’ll host a triumvirate of community parties to kick-off the Great Seattle Fruit Harvest.
- Throughout the Great Seattle Fruit Harvest, we’ll be hosting Harvest Hubs in each of our new communities.
But, we could use your help in rolling out this expansion! Do you live in any of these new neighborhoods? If so, could you:
1. Register your fruit tree(s)
2. Connect us to your community groups, ambassadors? Just email carrie@cityfruit.org
3. Sign up to join our volunteer pool
4. Let us know about other opportunities/events, where we could table. Just email carrie@cityfruit.org
5. Share with us your favorite community blogs, calendars, etc. Just email carrie@cityfruit.org
Over the past 10 years, we have grown because our community has pushed and supported us to grow. We couldn’t be more excited to finally say we serve all of Seattle, although there’s a lot of work ahead of us in ensuring that that service is equitable. Thanks for joining us in this growth.