The Barrie FruitShare event at Shear Park on Saturday was just one way that Living Green is making Barrie a healthier, greener place to live.
Hundreds of apples were picked, sorted, juiced and composted yesterday afternoon by Living Green volunteers and the local community. Living Green is an organization that implements local programs that get the community involved and enforce greener thinking.
Living Green project director Andee Pelan, who helped organize the community event, said it's quite a task to get through sometimes, but well worth it.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into a FruitShare, but it benefits so many people,” Pelan said.
“FruitShare has been around for many years, but there was no funding for it," she added. "We took it over, gave it some life support and hope to be able to continue it for some time.”
FruitShare is a program that sees a fruit tree owner call the group to come pick their tree and the fruit off the ground. Fruit that is undamaged gets sent to local organizations like the food bank or Catulpa Community Support Services. Fruit with some holes or can’t be eaten, gets composted. There's also fruit that is still good that was turned into juice for volunteers.
“Marty Lancaster from the Green Party has a vintage juice press that we used to make juice for our many volunteers,” said Pelan. “The idea is no apple, pear or whatever other fruit we have goes to waste.”
Living Green has many projects happening throughout the year, such as their educational film screenings and tree-planting excursions. The organization has a goal to plant 10,000 trees in Barrie and is currently at 570.
The next tree planting day is Sunday, Oct. 6 on the grounds of Park Place. You can register for the event here.
