solidarity fruit picking to help the most modest

Equipped with ladders, a small army of volunteers from the association “Aux Arbres Citoyens!” arrives in the garden of a retiree, owner of a large cherry tree in La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime). They came to help him, and in exchange, they will be able to keep part of the harvest. Charlotte Lamberton, volunteer and intermittent of the show, benefits from it: lately, she does not buy any more cherries in the supermarkets, because they are too expensive.

The association organizes solidarity pickings several times a week. Over the past few months, the number of volunteers has doubled. “We have, in the association, more and more young students for whom the cherry is a luxury product. It’s an opportunity for them to spend some time in nature and have access to fruits that would otherwise be too expensive.“, Explain Coralie Tisné-Versailles, coordinator of the association “Aux Arbres Citoyens!” A part of the cherries goes to the volunteers, and another to the owner. But most fruit is dropped off at a food bank. While some associations then decide to donate the fruits, others resell them at low cost. A solidarity grocery store offers them at 1 euro per kg.