Not Far From The Tree is a Toronto’s fruit picking and sharing project. The organisation connects generous treeowners registrants with volunteers in their community who are willing to harvest and share urban fruits. Their mission is to address issues of food waste, food access and climate change by empowering Torontonians to pick and share the bounty of Toronto’s urban orchard.

Toronto has thousands of fruit trees, but a lot of it just falls to the ground, too much for one household to eat. Healthy local fruit goes to waste, ending up in the yard waste bag, or in the garbage, instead of being shared with the community.

Not Far From The Tree (NFFTT) is a fruit picking project that is inspired by the spirit of sharing and a passion for environmentally sustainable living. The organisation connects generous treeowners registrants with volunteers in their community who are willing to harvest and share urban fruits. In this way they address issues of food waste, food access and climate change by empowering Torontonians to pick and share the bounty of Toronto’s urban orchard. Volunteers are mobilized and arrive at the home with picking tools. When all the fruit is collected, the bounty is split 3 ways with a third each going to the tree registrant (homeowner), the volunteers, and to social service agency partners, including food banks, community kitchens, supportive housing programs, and community health centres. The food is delivered to all partners via bicycle.

Since 2008, Not Far From The Tree has harvested 58 tonnes of edible fruit from Toronto trees since 2008 and donated 17 tonnes to over 30 local social service agencies. They estimate that 680 tonnes of fruit is available on fruit trees across Toronto each year. More than 1,800 homeowners have registered their fruit tree and can contact the organization when their trees are ready for harvesting.