A not-for-profit group is appealing for gardeners to donate excess fruit and vegetables so it can continue to supply a balanced range of low-cost groceries to residents who could not otherwise afford them.
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FoodCare management committee volunteer Alex Ruse said six people have recently donated home-grown produce for the organisation to pass on.
"The reason behind us being very happy about getting these donations is the fresh fruit and vegetables that were being collected from the supermarkets in Orange have gone down considerably," Ms Ruse said.
She said the donated produce has to be fit for human consumption and is given to customers for free, once they spend a minimum of $5 on other groceries.
Ms Ruse said FoodCare is open in March Street on Tuesdays, Wednesday's and Thursdays from 10.30am to 1pm and from 4.30pm to 6pm on Thursday.
FoodCare president and volunteer Bev Williams said aside from the donations, FoodCare has also purchased fruit and vegetables recently.
"We have received quite a few cash donations, particularly during the pandemic, and we've been using that money on a weekly basis to buy in fruit and veggies," she said.
"These [cash] donations are not going to last forever.
"We have used quite a bit of our donations on fruit and vegetables."
Among those who have already donated are volunteers from the Orange Community Garden.
Community gardener Michael Milston said each Tuesday morning he and another gardener pick whatever is ripe and take the produce to FoodCare.
"It's picked and straight to market," Mr Milston said.
We have used quite a bit of our donations on fruit and vegetables.
- Food Care committee president Bev Williams
"We started donating to FoodCare some years ago when there were a surplus crop.
"Prior to that FoodCare seemed to be getting a bit of produce from other sources."
Mr Milston said there's about 10 to 12 active gardeners who meet at the garden on the first Saturday and the third Friday of the month to tend the garden at the Elf.
He said the produce dwindled during the drought when they couldn't water the plants at the council owner site.
However, since the rain returned they've grown a variety of fruit and vegetable crops.
He said the produce has included cabbages, cauliflower, spinach, leeks, sage, beans, peas, corn, asparagus, rhubarb, potato, nashi pears, pears, apples, plums nectarines and peaches.
"Last year interestingly we had a bigger crop of raspberries than we had this year," Mr Milston said.
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