Are You A Fruit Rescuer? Be A Harvest Leader!

Photo credit © Melanie Hill

Community Fruit Rescue is looking for dedicated Volunteer Harvest Leaders for the 2022 season!

Join the Community Fruit Rescue family as a Volunteer Harvest Leader this season! We're looking for a handful of enthusiastic individuals to lead at least one community fruit harvest per person each week during our 12-week harvest season (typically late August - late October).

Community Fruit Rescue is a nonprofit organization that harvests the surplus and often overlooked fruit growing throughout the Boulder area to help reduce food waste, prevent conflicts with wildlife like black bears, build resilient communities, and direct fresh food to the people who need it. The harvested fruit is then donated to volunteer pickers, local food pantries, homeless shelters, schools, and even to the rescued animals at the Wild Animal Sanctuary.

Upon completing a brief training, Harvest Leaders will work with CFR's Harvest Coordinator, tree owners, and volunteers to: pick up and transport harvest equipment, brief volunteers with harvest protocols, share best practices on living with local wildlife, harvest fruit, weigh and divide the fruit, and transport back to our harvest hub. At the end of the season, Harvest Leaders will receive a $30 stipend for each harvest led in the form of a Visa gift card.

Interested? Fill out our application form: https://bit.ly/harvest-leader-app.

Requirements:

• Be responsible, reliable, and friendly.

• Be able to commit at least ~3-4 hours per week during the harvest season: late August through late October (one harvest per week).

• Be able to attend a 2-hour pre-season training to learn the ins and outs of harvest leadership.

• Be able to lift and carry equipment and heavy boxes of fruit.

• Be willing to interact with and guide volunteer pickers of all ages at harvests.

• Ideally have the ability to transport equipment and fruit to and from CFR’s storage space and harvests. We may be able to work with you on this if you do not currently have a vehicle.

Specific tasks will include:

• Picking up equipment (picking poles, boxes, scale, signs) from the CFR storage space and transporting them to the harvest.

• Checking in with the homeowner (if they are home) upon arrival.

• Greeting volunteer pickers and briefing them on basic harvest protocol.

• Sharing best practices about living with local wildlife such as black bears.

• Helping harvest fruit.

• Managing the weighing, recording weights, and dividing of fruit.

• Transporting equipment and fruit back to the CFR storage space.

• Representing CFR as the point-person during the harvest (which may mean answering questions, chatting with passersby, etc. to promote our program).

Apply today! https://bit.ly/harvest-leader-app.

Interested in helping out but can't commit to being a Harvest Leader? We have lots of other opportunities to get involved! Visit www.fruitrescue.org to:

• Register as a volunteer picker (harvest whenever your schedule allows and take some of the fruit home with you!).

• Register your fruit tree to be harvested by CFR.

• Apply to join our Board of Directors.

• Contact us to learn about all the other volunteer opportunities we have available.

Photo credit © Melanie Hill

Photo credit © Community Fruit Rescue