Love fruit? Want to support your community?

Picking Pears in the Cowichan Valley

Cowichan Green Community’s FruitSave program is in need of a few extra helping hands. Consider becoming a pick leader or fruit tree assessor. Either position is 5-10 hours a month for September and October.

Pick Leader
Pick leaders ensure that all the equipment needed for a pick makes it from the CGC’s office to the tree location and back again. The equipment includes the ladders, picking bags, picking poles and weigh scales. Once the fruit is harvested the pick leader reports back to CGC the total amount of fruit that was picked, how many pounds were donated and to what organization the fruit went to.

Needs to be able to transport at least the 6′ ladder and in some cases the 11′ ladder

Fruit Tree Assessor
Person who assesses the fruit tree prior to it being picked in order to determine:

• how many volunteers are needed to pick the tree (how much fruit is on the tree and how easy it is to pick the fruit.)
• What equipment is needed to pick the tree (size of ladder, type of ladder, picking poles, etc.)
• Are there any special considerations such as sloping ground, special plants under the tree, etc…
• Note: efforts will be made to match a person with a tree in their neighbourhood so a car is not always needed.

Volunteers have harvested over two tonnes (4696 pounds to be exact!) of apples, plums and pears in the first two months of this season and there are two months left to go. Please consider becoming a pick leader or fruit tree assessor so more people in the Cowichan Valley can have access to home grown fruit.

To sign up to volunteer, stop by CGC’s office to fill-out an online volunteer application. Online volunteer applications are also on our website: http://cowichangreencommunity.org/volunteer/

For more information, check out our webpage or contact CGC’s FruitSave coordinators at: fruitsave@cowichangreencommunity.org