About Us
We pick fruit and share it.
Did you know that over 1.5 million pounds of fresh fruit grows in Toronto?
Not Far From The Tree is Toronto’s fruit tree harvesting program, founded in 2008. We pick fruit in people’s yards – what we call Toronto’s urban orchard – and share the bounty with organizations that feed fellow Torontonians.
When a tree owner can’t keep up with their harvest, we mobilize a volunteer team to pick the fruit, and then split it: 1⁄3 to the tree registrant, 1⁄3 split amongst the volunteers, and 1⁄3 donated to one of our community agency partners. This simple act brings Torontonians together, empowering communities to reduce food waste, increases access to fresh fruit, and to helping us live more sustainably in the city.
The fruit we pick supports community agencies such as shelters, food banks, community fridges, housing programs, and meal programs. The groups support folks who are low income, seniors, youth, families, Indigenous peoples, racialized, 2SLGTBQIA+, fleeing domestic violence, experiencing housing instability, and/or newcomers to Canada: in essence, anyone who experiences food insecurity. Learn more by reading our Backgrounder!
Our Mission
To harness the power of fruit trees to create healthy, resilient, sustainable and connected communities across Toronto. We empower Torontonians to pick and share fruit that would otherwise fall to waste while providing opportunities to connect more intimately with their neighbours, environment, and food system. We act as, and empower people to become, stewards of the urban orchard to ensure its benefits can be realized for many generations to come.
Our Vision
We envision a Toronto where everyone has access to the urban harvest as part of a resilient food system that builds community and is based on the value of shared abundance. To achieve this vision, we work to:
- Bring communities together around the harvest
- Increase access to healthy, local fruit
- Raise awareness of the urban orchard as a food source
- Promote the health of the urban orchard
- Amplify the work of our social service partner agencies
The Land
Not Far From The Tree, as well as its staff and volunteers, operates on Lands that have traditionally been, and continue to be, stewarded and tended by many Indigenous nations: the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Three Fires Anishinaabek Confederacy, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River.
These territories are covered by the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, a treaty between the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabek Confederacies, as well as allied nations, to mutually care for and honor these Lands. All who live here are a part of this agreement, responsible for sharing and respecting this Land: we are all treaty people.
As an organization whose focus is on tending to our relationships to surrounding Lands and trees, we are cognizant of the ways ongoing processes of colonialism, dispossession, and Eurocentricity shape our practices. These include our operational and organizational structure, our tending to of non-native fruit trees brought here by immigrants, our participation in the construct of private property, and the specific life experiences and skills which we bring to building organizational relationships. We commit to continually hold and address these contradictions as we continue to deepen respectful relation with these Lands and its Beings.
The People of Not Far From The Tree
The Not Far From The Tree community is made up of a staff team, a Steering Committee, volunteer teams of Pick Leaders and Fruit Pickers, Tree Registrants, Storage Partners, Community Agencies, every person who engages with our program by donating or spreading the word, and every tree that lets us pick it!
Staff Team
Julia Girmenia (she/her)
Project Director
julia@notfarfromthetree.org
Nat Karpovskaia (they/them)
Program Manager
nat@notfarfromthetree.org
Ali Vanos (she/her)
Program Coordinator
ali@notfarfromthetree.org
Kat Sylvester (she/her)
Communications Specialist
info@notfarfromthetree.org
Steering Committee
Not Far From The Tree is guided by a volunteer Steering Committee and is supported by committees focusing on program development and fundraising. Thank you to:
Ali Abbas
Anne Lemesurier
Maddie Emberson, Chair
Niya Bajaj
Reem Dabbous
Ryan Frigault
Spencer Fowlie
Walter Sisti
MakeWay
Not Far From The Tree is a project on MakeWay‘s shared platform, which provides operational support, governance, and charitable expertise for change makers. The shared platform enables more time and money to go towards achieving greater impact. MakeWay is a national charity that builds partnerships and solutions to help nature and communities thrive together. With the shared platform, MakeWay projects benefit from the support of a mission-aligned community, charitable expertise, and shared administrative resources including: governance, compliance, financial management, human resources, risk management and grants administration. MakeWay has full fiduciary and governance responsibility for Not Far From The Tree.
Thank you to our 2025 Season Sponsors
