I volunteer at many places and with several organizations and for sure Village Harvest is among my favourite places to contribute my time and effort. Not only because I am aware of my privileged life and the easy access to fruits and veggies at my had while realizing that not everyone has the same access to basic needs like fresh fruits, but also because it is fun. You are outdoors, you exercise, you take fruits home (the ones falling to the floor, a bit damage or not so pretty), you are among generous of spirit people who are kind and are so eager to help the communities in need. I also love agriculture (I always like to remember my parents, grandparents and their parents were olive pickers for a living at a certain time) so I reconnect with my lost in time farmer girl. My experience as volunteer for the Village Harvest has always been fantastic, from oranges to pears to persimmons, I like them all and I appreciate how organized are the coordinators to make detail so smooth (from where to find parking, to remind us to wear masks, to maintain social distancing and making sure safety comes first). I also appreciate a lot the generous donors of fruits. For me, going to the houses of strangers to pick their fruit is like a sneak peak into their lives and perfect excuse to get out of my comfort zone discovering new areas, hoods, how people live, etc. I recommend this organization to anyone who want to volunteer for just a few hours in different places, variety of days and get some food freebies in exchange too. read more

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Love, love, love this cause. Such wonderful nice people, working hard to harvest food for hungry families. Homeowners get their fruit trees picked, the fruit goes to food banks, and volunteers get to take home fruit that is slightly damaged or bruised - win win for everyone! I volunteered when it was persimmon season and I made a video about the experience - check it out in YT under "two BIG bites". read more

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A non profit volunteer organization that benefits the Santa Clara County, providing food for the poor and harvesting/picking services for the elderly. When the elderly cannot pick their own fruit from their trees on their property and it is too much to harvest, they can contact VH. VH will come out and harvest the fruit and donate it to local charities to distribute to the poor. Everyone benefits, the poor receives, the fruit, the elderly will have a clean yard, the volunteers get free fruit that they picked and a feeling of helping the community. I volunteer with the Mountain View group, they harvest the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month. 9-12pm. (times vary). Met at 8:45am at 204 Stierlin Rd., MV, parallel to Moffett Blvd. at the Mountain View, Community Services Agency Building. http://www.yelp.com/biz/yLLxDRYH73Oq8ai3uLbYxw?hrid=6lmYCjzNpBg0wzqGR0p15Q Around 7 of us visited 3 homes and harvested around 500lbs. of apples and asian pears. We carpool to the homes. Pick the fruits, with tarping, pole pickers, ladders and by hand. We sort and separate the perfect fruit from the marred then take all back to the CSA. VH offers their volunteers gloves, water and snacks. Wear long sleeves, hats, sunscreen, and wear clothes that can get dirty. Harvest schedule and contact info. http://www.villageharvest.org/events.htm read more

I really like volunteer at village harvest! I volunteered with them with a separate group and just pull together my friends to join them. Rather it's picking fruits from orchard or going house-to-house, it's for great cause! I never seem a persimmon tree until I volunteer with them a couple years back.. Picking citrus, persimmon, and cherries are one of those experience you won't forget. read more

This is a fun day of physical labor out doors that is creating community, doing something for home owners who can't or don't want to pick their fruit, and give to people who can use the extra fruit. As a volunteer, I have recently become involved in an expansion planning group, and we are going to be doing harvests soon in San Mateo County, and Berkeley. One thing I like about the mission. There is no lofty, "We're saving the world" type of idealism. The founder said that he knew some people who wanted to find free fruit for preserves, and he started noticing all of these full trees in his community. He just asked if he could pick them. "Pretty quickly we went from a few bags of fruit in the trunk of our car, to being the largest single donor of our kind to the food bank system." My favorite part of the pick? What we call "Quallity Control". To make sure we aren't picking bad fruit. So, if you're a homeowner with a fruit tree that produces too much for you & your family, Give us a call! read more

Great fun and an efficient use of community resources! Numerous opportunities throughout the bay area on different days and times, and you don't need to be a muscle man to help. (Though they do need some to lug around the boxes of fruit.) Pick extra fruit from backyards, give to food banks. What a simple and amazingly effective idea. Every day spent picking produces thousands of pounds of fruit - do the math, hundreds of people are being fed. The peninsula used to be apricot orchards - and the remnants of that are left in backyards and estates throughout. Village harvest provides all the equipment - orchard ladders, buckets, boxes, fruit pickers, so all you need to do is show up and have fun helping the community. read more

I love this charity!! My favorite overall, because i cant pick all the fruit off my tree myself since my tree is HUGE, these folks will come by and pick it for a donation, weigh your fruit, and then give you a charitable contribution receipt of lbs donated!! They call me each year to schedule when they are in my neighborhood, and all the fruit goes to local charities! Instead of fruit dropping to the ground, i can give it away!! The people come with all their tools and crates, and they go to work. I recommend that you are there for the process if you want to make sure that they don't step on plants (i have roses right next to tree) or lights, as they may not know they are there. Or drip systems unless you have them adequately tagged or marked. I have an older tree so i have to let them know not to put too much weight on it due to my worry about their safety. I also point out areas i don't want them to pick for my use. They comply with everything. But they will pick your tree fully if you want them to do so. These are all volunteers, so don't expect all of them to be professional pickers, and some were learning to pick on my tree. But the main folks, they manage everything, are super nice, and its fun for me to see the lbs picked!! Have fun!!! And feel great about giving fresh fruit to people in need!! read more

This was a lot of fun. Best volunteer work I've ever done. We went to 4 homes in the Moutain View and Los Altos area. Some places had big trees, some had small ones, some had multiple fruit trees. The staff were very well organized and prepared with all the equipment. The fruit smelled delicious. It was a fun way to start the morning and help the community. read more

Came to harvest my plums on an off-schedule date because otherwise all the plums would have fallen. They were very nice people and even cleaned up under the tree after. Plums went to Sunnyvale Community Services for low-income families and seniors. read more