James Harrald
Happy New Year and welcome to another season of gleaning fruit for the Sun Lakes community! Our Kickoff Coffee for volunteer fruit pickers will be held on Jan. 25 at 10 a.m., and we have a new location. This year, we will be in the Saguaro Room at Cottonwood, not at SLCC. Please spread the word that the venue changed. We will start promptly at 10 a.m. and should be done within the hour. Coffee and snacks will be provided.
The picking season will run for five straight weeks, starting on Saturday, Feb. 1, and ending on Monday, March 2. We only pick on Saturdays and Mondays from 8 a.m. until noon. We appreciate all who come early for the juice, coffee, and snacks so we can hit the road right at 8 a.m. Citrus Central will be in the same spot at 25825 99th Drive, Sun Lakes, AZ. Thanks again to George and Christy for letting us take over the garage space each year!
All the fruit gleaned will be donated to St. Mary’s Food Bank. We have partnered with them for years, and they are very grateful for the bountiful crop we send them each year. We are consistently sending them 60 tons, yes tons, each year. We can use all the help we can get, so please come to the Kickoff and learn how you can lend a hand. We have over 500 homes in the database, and it continues to grow as word spreads. If you have had your fruit picked previously, don’t call us—we’ll call you! Unless, of course, you changed your number or information. We keep all the names on our database until asked to be removed.
If you want to help PICK this year, please attend the Kickoff, show up on any of the days, or email James at [email protected]. If you want to HAVE YOUR FRUIT PICKED, please call Donna, our awesome new intake volunteer, at 480-276-2898. And thank you to all our volunteers—your community appreciates you!