On a Saturday morning in September, a collection of cars began lining up along one of the gravel roads in Adam’s Vineyard. Concrete Jungle volunteers arrived at the vineyard in the Norcross neighborhood from around metro Atlanta and Athens to pick muscadines for a local church to help fight food insecurity.
By 12:30 p.m., the volunteer group had picked and packed nearly 700 pounds of grapes for Cross Pointe Church and its CarePointe program in Duluth.
According to the USDA, more than a third of the country’s available food goes to waste. Concrete Jungle Director of Programs Virginia Ruiz Lawley said the statistic is startling, especially given the recent rise in food insecurity.
Concrete Jungle began life as an apple-picking endeavor in 2006. A bunch of Atlanta college students put out a call for apples to make homemade cider. They purchased a cider press and found urban apple trees growing in yards and on public properties throughout the city. The event grew into an annual Ciderfest and led to the founding of the Concrete Jungle nonprofit in 2009.
Today, Concrete Jungle has reached across the state, with another branch in Athens. The organization forages and donates more than one million pounds of produce annually, distributing to partners like NETWorks Cooperative Ministry, the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Atlanta. To date, the volunteer-run organization has mapped out about 4,300 fruit trees in metro Atlanta and Athens.
Related story:
Is the community garden becoming the must-have amenity?
Concrete Jungle launched adventure picks like the one that took place at Adam’s Vineyard in 2016. The produce, which ranges from pears picked from an orchard in Tiger, Georgia, to excess corn harvested from a Sylvester, Georgia, farm, is redistributed to local food pantries and relief organizations.
Ruiz Lawley said Concrete Jungle includes employees who specifically reach out to farms asking for extra crops that would otherwise go to waste before farmers turn their fields for the next planting season.
“We had a lady in south Georgia reach out last week to say, ‘I’m not gonna be able to harvest all my peas. Do you think there’s a way to come harvest these peas?'” Ruiz Lawley said.
That’s where Concrete Jungle and its volunteer pickers come in.
Adventure picks vary by location and range in intensity. The Adam’s Vineyard picks in Norcross are the closest to Atlanta and require the least amount of physical endurance. Ruiz Lawley said the corn picks in Sylvester, which can yield between 15,000 and 30,000 pounds of produce, are some of the organization’s most challenging.
Picks farther out from Atlanta and Athens typically include some sort of activity afterwards, like a visit to a local brewery or a dip in a local swimming hole.
Concrete Jungle will be back at Adam’s Vineyard for a muscadine adventure pick on Oct. 3, followed by a corn pick in Sylvester on Nov. 7, and a root vegetable pick in Clarkesville on Nov. 14.
And Concrete Jungle’s volunteer opportunities aren’t just limited to harvesting during adventure picks. Doghead Farm in Sylvan Hills needs volunteers for weekly maintenance, while other farms and gardens require pruning before the next growing season.
“There’s no shortage of food in this country, and there’s no shortage of people who can’t afford access to healthy food,” Ruiz Lawley said.
Visit Concrete Jungle for a calendar of volunteer opportunities. Anyone with available or excess produce for picking should email info@concrete-jungle.org.
