Food Picked with Love is an organization of teens dedicated to decreasing food insecurity and food waste.

While walking in my neighborhood early in the quarantine, I was struck by the abundance of trees, bearing edible fruit, but whose fruit was just falling to the ground. After passing a beautiful orange tree, I asked my neighbor to pick the oranges so I could donate them. I arranged with a local pantry to donate the fruit. When I brought the oranges to the pantry, the director said, “This fruit looks like it was picked with love." That is how the name, Food Picked with Love, emerged!

I could see first-hand how a little work could have such an impact in our community. One day, the pantry director said our oranges were the only fresh fruit that 120 households received that day. Hearing that inspired me to continue. I learned that one in five people in the Bay Area are food insecure. I arranged with the director to bring locally-picked food on a regular basis. Food Picked with Love started to bloom.

Over the months and now years, Food Picked with Love has grown to more cities. Partnering with local groups, like the Girl Scouts, we have been able to pick and donate over 5,000 pounds of fruit in one neighborhood alone! Food Picked with Love is helping to provide fresh fruit and food to those in need, while reducing waste that could contribute to climate change.

We have harvested many different types of fruit and foods: apples, lemons, oranges, pears, grapefruit, plums, snap peas, persimmons, even cactus fruit. (The cactus fruit was super fun, tasty… and a little prickly!)

I hope to expand Food Picked with Love to spread more awareness about food waste and food insecurity. I would like to make a difference in my community and beyond!

www.foodpickedwithlove.org
Instagram: @foodpickedwithlove