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Barb is posting this for her City Fruit coworker.

Hey, Wallyhood! My name is Luke Jesperson and I am a rather new resident of the good neighborhood of Wallingford. I am also the Harvest Coordinator for City Fruit, a Seattle non-profit which harvests surplus fruit from neighborhood trees and donates it to nearby food banks, meal programs, and shelters.

Over the course of the past five years, City Fruit has harvested and donated over 55,000 pounds of fruit that otherwise would have been wasted. City Fruit was founded in 2009 in the Mount Baker neighborhood, expanded to the rest of South Seattle, West Seattle, and Phinney/Greenwood by 2013.

In the fall of 2013, Solid Ground’s Community Fruit Tree Harvest asked City Fruit to take over their neighborhood harvest work so they could focus their resources elsewhere. Thus 2014 is City Fruit’s first year harvesting in both Wallingford and Ballard.

One City Fruit goal is to benefit the neighborhood in which the fruit is harvested. In Wallingford, recipient organizations include Family Works, the University District Food Bank, the Wallingford Community Senior Center, the ROOTS Young Adult Center, and more.

We rely on the generosity of neighbors to take advantage of this incredible supply of local, fresh fruit. If you or someone you know has a tree with fruit that could be donated to City Fruit, please feel free to contact me at [email protected].

And if you ever see this goofy-looking fellow (scroll down to find Luke) strolling around, say hello and ask me any questions you may have about City Fruit or your own fruit trees or point me in the direction of trees that may need some attention. I love getting to know more of my neighbors and chatting about trees is always a good time to me.

Thank you all very much and happy summer!

P.S. from Barb: Check out the City Fruit-Cycle in the Wallingford Kiddies Parade July 5, then stop by the City Fruit table at the Wallingford Family Festival.