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Does anyone have any ideas to give back?
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Kudos, actree, on getting that firewood round program going with your municipal recs dept. Nice. Here, we've got a similar thing going but with not-for-profit food banks run by Lion's club, Rotary club, etc. These tend to be more rural, the urban poor have no way to heat their rental space with wood. These hard-working volunteers will even come to the jobsite, load and haul the wood themselves.
Speaking of foodbanks, around here there are tons of back yard fruit trees. Some are 80-90 years old, preserved when urban expansion moved into existing orchards, then there is another wave of fruit trees planted in the late 60's-70's. Properties change hands, people lose interest, the trees get maintained for control, not fruit production, a lot of thing happen, but the trees still produce and since I moved here, and as tree workers we see a lot of back yards, I was often saddened by the amount of fruit that was just left on the ground.
Figuring there had to be a better way, and talking to some of my food bank wood collector volunteers, I found out there was indeed a program.
The Fruit Tree Project! It aligns tree owners with volunteer pickers, not-for-profit foodbanks and, yes, a for profit local juice/cider producer who turns back 5% of their fruit juice to the food bank and 5% of the cider profits to an aligned community food garden program that gives low income apartment dwellers a space to grow food.
I know that is not as directly related to tree work as donating what is produced on the job, I can't be picking cherries for the food bank while I'm being paid to climb and cut, but I'm in an optimal position to note trees that can be added to the Project inventory, talk to the owner, and get another batch of fruit added to the tables of the needy.
I do my share of picking after hours as well, it was kind of the whole point of getting involved in the first place. It just does a heart good to see a need and fill it.
Northwind
