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.

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 35 social service agency partners, including food banks, community kitchens, supportive housing programs, and community health centres.

Our Mission

Our mission is to address issues of food waste, food access and climate change by empowering Torontonians to pick and share the bounty of Toronto’s urban orchard.

Our Vision

We envision a Toronto where urban fruit harvesting is a viable and sustainable food access strategy, and where our urban orchard unites neighbours in community-building. To achieve this vision, we work to:

• Build community
• Reduce food waste
• 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 35 social service partner agencies

Since 2008, Not Far From The Tree has picked and shared over 182,000 pounds 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 35 social service agency partners.

Right now we operate in the downtown core, south of Eglinton, east of Jane, west of Victoria Park and north of the waterfront. We’re working to expand our operating area, and need your support to so!