The 2014 urban fruit picking season in numbers
During the 2014 harvest season, Les Fruits Défendus called on roughly 100 volunteers for 71 harvests.
This year, 2,723 pounds of fruit were shared with Montrealers! In past years the collective had been operating out of the Roulant and somewhat restricted to adjacent neighbourhoods, but this year, two new activity hubs were created allowing activities to be scaled up in the Villeray and Parc-Ex neighbouhoods. La Maison de quartier Villeray and Vrac Environnement‘s involvement was invaluable in this growth.
A huge thanks to our partners, harvesters, motivated harvest volunteers and generous fruit tree owners. It’s thanks to you that this project continues to thrive!
Les Fruits Défendus is launching a crowdfunding campaingn on Indiegogo
Do you dream of a city where urban fruit lands in the bellies of Montrealers rather than on the ground? Great, so do the volunteers of Les Fruits Défendus!
We are looking to scale up operations to harvest and redistribute more fruit here in Montreal. Your help is valuable: you can contribute to the Indiegogo campaign until December 4. No donation is too small, and every donation fetches a gift – hello holiday season! Another way you can offer up your support is to tell your friends about the campaign by sharing it directly from the crowdfunding page or via the Facebook event.
The goal is to collect 5000$ to purchase more harvest equipment for seasons to come as well as to pay a coordinator for winter 2015, to be better prepared to meet demand during the 2015 harvest season.
Les Fruits Défendus on La semaine verte
La semaine verte, an iconic Radio-Canada show about all things environment and agriculture, did a report on Les Fruits Defendus at the end of the summer!
It aired just over a week ago and can still be viewed online. A huge thank you to the volunteers and homeowners who participated in the project! Working with a film crew was a new challenge, but the collective is hoping that the increased visibility will help them keep Montreal fruit harvests on the map! Watch the video and read the article on the La semaine verte website!