11/20/2016 SPOTLIGHT! | Smith-Barbieri

https://www.smith-barbieri.com/spotlight/ 5/62

Minneapolis, the Twin Cities

Mobile Market.

This spring THEZONE project

will pilot Green Schoolyards.

Green Schoolyards America is a

national model that is research

based.

Evidence of June gleaning

Spokane Edible Tree Project FundedSmith-Barbieri Progressive Fund funded project!

Fruit-mapping intiative takes root in Spokane

Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund awards grant to Edible Tree Project

by Sherry Jones, July 1, 2016

Got fruit? Pat Coleman does—more, sometimes, than he knows what to do with.

Twelve hundred pounds of unpicked organic apricots on his Found Barn Farmlast year might have been left to rot. Instead, Coleman donated all thatluscious fruit to the Spokane Edible Tree Project, which in turn fed it to peoplein need.

And he didn’t even have to pick the fruit: the Edible Tree Project’s volunteersharvested it and carried it away from Coleman’s farm, on Green Bluff.

“Awesome,” he said. “It’s a wonderful organization.”

Now, the Spokane Edible Tree Project wants to do the same thing for the restof Spokane County.

Since its inception in 2013 by founder and board president Kate Burke, theEdible Tree Project has worked primarily with larger growers on Green Bluffand elsewhere. Now, with the help of a grant from the Smith-BarbieriProgressive Fund, the project is expanding its fruit-forward ambitions. Itsteam aims to chart every tree in Spokane County that bears fruit and nuts, aswell as berry bushes. That’s a lot of fruit: 7,500 trees mapped so far, and it’s only the beginning. (See themap here.)

“Our first season, we got more than 35,000 pounds of fruit,” Burke says. “I’m confident that we can gethundreds of thousands of pounds.”

public transit style bus will become a grocery-on-wheels that will make three stopsper week in THEZONE at high density, low-income housing complexes.

Green Schoolyards in THEZONE will create schoolyard gardens and

greenhouses to grow fresh foods for school kitchens. Staff, students, andcommunity members will learn about gardening as well as food prep and nutrition.The gardens also will provide a summer employment opportunity for students via apartnership with Project Hope.

“Providing a critical need to highly collaborative and dedicated

community partners, who are laser focused on a specific area made this a veryeasy decision for the Fund,” said Sharon Smith co-founder of the Smith-BarbieriProgressive Fund. “We are sincerely grateful to be a part of THEZONE and thesegreat projects.”

These projects rely on many community partners, who are providing support innumerous ways: Spokane Community College, City of Spokane, Spokane RegionalHealth District, Gonzaga University, 2nd Harvest, Project Hope, Applied Insight,Empire Health Foundation, Catholic Charities, and Spokane Food Policy Council.

 

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Cherry gleaning in July

Spokane Edible Tree Board of Directors

As inspiration, she points to the Portland Edible TreeProject in Oregon, 10 years old, that collects some43,000 pounds of fruit each season. The Portlandorganization is one of the Spokane project’s primarypartners, along with the Washington State UniversityExtension Service, Second Harvest, The Lands Council,and Rotary First Harvest, contributing volunteers andother resources to get the food where it’s needed: intothe mouths of hungry people—whose numbers appearto be growing in Spokane County.

“The need for food is growing throughout ourcommunity,” says Shawn Lepisi, food resourcedeveloper at Second Harvest. “Every year, we see anincrease in need.”

In 2015, some 3,000 pounds of Edible Tree Project fruitwent to Second Harvest patrons, “produce that would

otherwise to go to waste,” Lepisi said. The food bank provided 11.5 million pounds of produce last year,nearly half its total distribution, he said.

The project’s “highly collaborative” approach to alleviating hunger helped it win the grant. Administered bylocal philanthropists Sharon Smith and Don Barbieri, the Smith-Barbieri Progressive Fund provides aid toprojects aiming at reducing poverty in Spokane County.

The Spokane Edible Tree Project, Smith says, helps ensure “that food insecure individuals and families haveon-going and reliable access to healthy produce.

“Hunger-related malnutrition is a serious issue, especially among the elderly and children, that may havelong-term and even permanent physical, emotional and mental effects,” she says.

As Spokane County’s hunger grows, the SpokaneEdible Tree Project hopes to satisfy it in a number ofways, says Kendra Dean, a Harvest Against HungerAmericorps VISTA member working full-time with theproject. Among the plans: offering classes in tree healthand pruning (for greater harvests and healthier fruit) andin fruit preparation and preservation, a “Give a Box”program at Green Bluff where consumers may pick fruitto donate to the project, and a “fallen fruit” programwhere volunteers glean fruit from the ground to beprocessed for sale or giveaway.

Dean also envisions organizing neighborhoods toharvest their own trees and share the fruit with one another.

“Ten, twenty years down the road, I’d love for us to bring volunteers to a tree and there’d be no fruit on it,”Burke says. “I like the idea of taking out the middleman.”

The Spokane Edible Tree Project’s next event, a Cherry Glean, takes place July 10. For more information orto volunteer, go to http://www.spokaneedibletreeproject.org.

Sherry Jones (www.authorsherryjones.com) is a Spokane author and freelance writer.

 

Critical Therapy for Spokane Children ExpandsSmith-Barbieri Progressive Fund funded project!

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