First Look: 300 Free Fruit Trees Planted for San Fernando

If there’s one thing Angelenos can agree on, it’s that we have a special place in our hearts for fruit trees.

From classic citrus, savory stone fruit, or (the millennial favorite) avocado, our city is blessed to have these trees thrive and bloom all year long. So it’s no surprise that there was no shortage of excitement from eager residents during our latest free Fruit Tree Distribution at San Fernando’s Pacoima Wash Natural Park earlier this month.

LA’s Northeast San Fernando Valley is a “food desert”– or an area where a high percentage of households have limited access to grocery stores with healthy, nutritious foods.… Read more >>

TreePeople’s Fruit Tree Distributions Bring Food & Shade to LA Communities

Pecoima residents

More than 250 volunteers joined TreePeople to distribute nearly 2,000 trees to Angelenos from Inglewood, Huntington Park, Pacoima, and Watts during this year’s Fruit Tree Distribution Festivals.

Volunteers in Huntington Park prepare a tree for transport

Volunteers in Huntington Park prepare a tree for transport

The events attracted a variety of volunteers, from local community members to groups, businesses and government representatives. This year the Laker Girls were on hand to help sort new trees, while volunteers from Starbucks and Disney helped distribute the trees to residents. In Pacoima, LA Councilmember Felipe Fuentes and Pacoima Beautiful partnered to promote the event in Roger Jessup Park.… Read more >>

Fruit Trees Go Public

Photo: Vahagn Karapetyan

You’ll have read about and possibly visited the public park orchard planted at Del Aire Park that opened last fall. It’s a Los Angeles County Arts Commission-sponsored project of the artist group Fallen Fruit, famous locally for their neighborhood maps of fruit-bearing trees accessible in public rights of way and the “fruit jams” they hold in L.A. museums and galleries. Like artist Fritz Haeg’s Edible Estates, the Del Aire Fruit Tree Park acquaints the neighborhood with the notion of growing food in front, where everyone can see it and, better, eat it.… Read more >>

From the Battlefield to Farm Fields

America needs one million new farmers; returning war veterans need jobs.

Enter Ground Operations, the new documentary that follows vets who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan only to face a daunting transition back to civilian life. As filmmakers Dulanie Ellis and Raymond Singer show, organic food production is creating a restorative road home. Working with soil, plants, and animals, veterans de-escalate from the high velocity of combat in a revitalizing natural setting. “I realized I could be a nurturer instead of a destroyer, and that was a significant realization for me,” says a Marine.… Read more >>