About Us

Who We Are

We’re Toronto’s fruit picking and sharing project. Did you know Toronto is home to a massive urban orchard? Over 1.5 million pounds of fruit grows right here in the city every year. We work to connect generous tree registrants with excess fruit to volunteers in their community who are willing to pick and share it. No good fruit should fall to waste when so many people can use it!

The bounty from each fruit pick is split 3 ways: ⅓ is provided to the tree registrant, ⅓ is split amongst the picking volunteers, and ⅓ is delivered via cargo bike to one of our 36 social service agency partners, including food banks, community kitchens, supportive housing programs, and community health centres.

“If one wants to positively contribute to the sustainability of food in Toronto, what better way than to spend a couple hours with new peers in a joint effort to rescue and preserve fruit to share?”

Our Mission

Our mission is 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 be stewards of the urban orchard to ensure it’s 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, local food system that builds community, and is based on the value of shared abundance. To achieve this vision, we work to:

• Bring people together around the harvest
• Strengthen community ties
• Increase access to healthy, local fruit
• Raise public awareness of Toronto’s urban orchard as food source
• Promote the health and sustainability of the urban orchard
• Amplify the work of our social service partner agencies

Since 2008, Not Far From The Tree has picked and shared over 231,037 lbs of fruit across Toronto. Our organization is made possible thanks to the generous support of over 1,800 tree registrants and 2,200 fruit pickers. A third of this harvest has been shared directly with our 36 social service agency partners.

For seasons’ past, we operated in the downtown core, south of Eglinton, east of Jane, west of Victoria Park, and north of the waterfront. This year, in the west our borders will extend to Royal York, The Gardiner and Dundas. In the East we will expand to cover the area enclosed by Birchmount, St. Clair East, and The waterfront.