Durango’s Good Food Collective is on a mission to build a just and thriving food system for Southwest Colorado. The GFC’s Community Fruit Program upcycles a portion of our region’s estimated 2,660,000 pounds of feral fruit every year. This effort helps address food insecurity, reduces organic waste, and mitigates bear-human conflict.
Local foodies and community members are welcome to join the Community Fruit Program in many ways. You can donate fruit trees or veggie gardens for community harvests by listing your trees or gardens on the Fruit Tree Registry. This database showcases the location of fruit trees waiting to be plucked.
If you’re interested in volunteering, sign up for one of our weekly Community Fruit Harvests hosted on these local properties. You’ll join fellow gleaners in harvesting fruit while learning about the region’s fruit history and contemporary local food system and how you can support our local food economy. Take as much fruit as you like; the Good Food Collective donates the remaining “good” fruit while local ranchers receive the leftovers for livestock.
The “good” fruit includes Grade-A fruit, which is shared with our 29-member Food Pantry Network. Meanwhile, Grade-B fruit goes to local cideries and our “Fruit for Good Social Enterprise,” which produces healthy, shelf-stable fruit products for consumers to access local fruit throughout the year. 
The Fruit for Good Social Enterprise’s dehydrated Apple Chips are donated to local food pantries or sold at James Ranch Market, Sunnyside Market, and the Old Fort Country Store. Proceeds support the continuation of the Community Harvest Program.
The Community Fruit Program reaches a crescendo on the first weekend of October when more than 400 people coalesce for our annual Apple Days Festival, hosted in partnership with the Durango Farmers Market. This family-friendly festival features food-related educational booths, artisanal food vendors, dance troupes, and music. If you love fruit as much as we do, you’ll love the live apple pressing, where you can turn that week’s Community Fruit Harvest into hand-pressed cider.
Raise a glass and toast to the growing base of a sustainable food system for all! The stronger our food system becomes, the more resilient we’ll be as a community. Learn more at goodfoodcollective.org.
