Okanagan Fruit Tree Project Society
The Okanagan Fruit Tree Project is a Registered Charity that operates in the Central and South Okanagan. Through our various programs, we grow and harvest fresh produce, and we also share produce and food systems knowledge with the community.
Produce Rescue:
Backyard fruit tree owners, orchardists, and farmers with food to harvest contact us and we organize our volunteers to go out and collect it! We harvest from fruit trees, nut trees, and vegetable plots. The harvest is then shared between our amazing volunteers, the home owner, and the majority is delivered to the community organizations we support in the Central and South Okanagan.
Community Farming:
Our volunteers help plant, weed, and harvest vegetables such as onions, potatoes, carrots, beets, kale, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, squash and more! We grow food sustainably, with a focus on soil health and plant diversity. Our harvests are shared with volunteers and community organizations in the Central Okanagan and beyond. In 2021, we were gifted a beautiful farm property in East Kelowna. We are working to establish a new farm plot here to feed more people.
Collaborative Harvest
We partner with local schools and social service agencies to bring student groups or groups of social service program participants to come once or multiple times a season and help out at the farm or with rescuing produce throughout the Okanagan. This inclusive activity connects youth and community members who often experience marginalization with the outdoors, and with their local food system. As always, participants get to take some yummy fresh produce home at the end of the day!
Food System Education
This program focuses on facilitating knowledge exchange and around local food issues. It includes knowledge sharing sessions in the form of dialogues or workshops that the OFTP hosts, often in collaboration with other organizations or institutions, on themes around equity, food justice, sustainability, and others. We are honored to be chosen as the steward of the Central Okanagan Food Hub by United Way BC.