The Minnesota Project, of St. Paul, offers two programs to support local food shelves.

The Garden Gleaning Project helps to harvest and distribute fresh fruits and vegetables from gardens in the community to local food shelves. Members also collect and deliver donations from local farmers’ markets.

“These relationships between growers and food shelves build community and increase access to healthy foods,” states the project. In 2013, the program published a resource guide to assist gardeners and food shelves grow and source more fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Fruits of the City program matches teams of trained volunteer gleaners with registered homeowners who have fruit trees and local orchards to harvest fruit and support more than 30 local food shelves.

The program offers regular classes related to fruit tree care and maintenance and also works to plant new community orchards at schools, corporate campuses, churches, community gardens and other neighborhood spaces. The program recently published a Fruit Tree Maintenance Guide to assist tree owners with tree care.

For more information on the Garden Gleaning Project, visit GardenGleaning.org. For more information on the Fruits of the City program, call 651-789-3321, email [email protected] or visit FruitsOfTheCity.org.