Abundance Trafford & FareShare

We picked about 35 kg of apples from two trees in Stretford at the weekend. Bags of apples sitting in our living room – where to take them? Cooking apples are harder to distribute in volume because lots of people don’t know what to do with them.

So, I rang FareShare, who deliver food to their community food members (CFM) – some of whom are based in Old Trafford, and they were in the area delivering today, so collected all the fruit. This is fantastic, because they have 35 different CFM – and the numbers are growing all the time. The CFM are always asking for fresh produce, so its great to be able to pass the apples on to them.
http://www.emergemanchester.co.uk/fareshare.html

Earlier in the week I took 3 kg of plums that an allotment neighbour had given me to St Bride’s Church. We’d made plum jam already and were a bit plumed out (so to speak).

Picking in 2011

Its picking time! Last week I was up at Kenworthy Orchard with the lovely people from Abundance Manchester who were running a plum pruning session. We had to take some plums off branches that needed to be removed and some of these were ripe.

Today, we had our first query from someone who needs some trees picked, so if you’re able to help get in touch! The best way to reach us is via email on abundancetrafford@gmail.com.

Funding news

The last post mentioned that we needed some trailers, ladders etc. in order to be more effective in 2011.

The good news is that we applied for some funding from Unicorn’s 1% fund and received £350 which we will use to buy two trailers, some spare hitches (so the trailers can be used widely across the group), some ladders and some money to get some flyers printed so we can publicise Abundance Trafford.

So, a big thank you to Unicorn for supporting us.

Our first year

As the weather gets colder there is time to reflect on our first year, and look forward to warmer weather and picking in 2011.

In 2010 we established the group and did some picking and distribution of fruit to groups in the North of Trafford borough.  There were some obstacles, mainly a lack of equipment!  We want to be able to operate in a sustainable way, using bike trailers but our group does not own anything suitable.  What we need are boxy trailers that can transport ladders to a picking site and ladders and apples after picking.

Some of the picking done this year was only possible because the trees were very local to where we live, so we carried ladders and used panniers to bring the apples home and transport them on to a group.   Word started to get around about the group too, so people left apples outside one of our houses, saving picking time.

We’re going to request funding to enable us to buy a couple of bike trailers and some extra hitches (so the trailers can be shared amongst the group), ladders and a bit of money to print some flyers so we can publicise our group.  Fingers crossed we get the money so 2011 can be a productive picking year for Abundance Trafford.

Our thanks to Abundance Manchester for sharing their experience – which was essential in getting the group started.

If you’d like to get involved, please get in touch on abundancetrafford@gmail.com

Abundance Trafford

We are a new project, set up by volunteers, to collect surplus fruit and vegetables in the Old Trafford, Urmston and Stretford areas (though we will travel further afield for plentiful supplies!).  The idea is to then distribute this to charities/organisations who require food donations and thus reduce food waste.  You can help by:

– volunteering to pick fruit during the harvest season (August – October)

– have a fruit tree in your garden and are happy for us to come and pick

– have an allotment or vegetable garden and are happy to donate surplus

– have a bike trailer we can borrow!

– are a charity or organisation who would welcome donations of this kind

Other Abundance Projects

To view other Abundance projects in the UK, including Manchester, please click on links below:

http://abundancemanchester.wordpress.com/

http://www.leedsurbanharvest.org.uk/

http://www.growsheffield.com/pages/groShefAbund.html