It’s too early for the Citrus Fair’s orange and grapefruit trees to bear ripe fruit. But on Dec. 14, the lemon trees planted along the boundaries of the fairgrounds were rife with fruit and ready to be picked by a group of Cloverdale High School (CHS) students. The lemons were set aside in baskets and bags to be brought to both the Cloverdale Food Pantry and the Cloverdale Senior Multipurpose Center.
The Citrus Fair, like Cloverdale as a whole, is home to handfuls of citrus trees. But oftentimes, fruit produced by the trees go unpicked, falling to the ground. This year, CEO Allison Keaney wanted to change that.
“We’re growing food and we can share it — we have plenty,” Keaney said.
Bridging the fairgrounds with the high school, Keaney and CHS teacher Angelica Fernandes worked together to orchestrate a community service opportunity for students where they could gather and help collect fruit from the trees.
After about an hour and a half, bags and buckets of fruit were lined up along the wall outside of the Citrus Fair offices.
According to Fernandes, the group picking lemons on Tuesday was made up of both students from Cloverdale’s new Future Farmers of America program as well as students not involved in FFA who need more community service hours.
With two years of restrictions due to COVID-19, Fernandes said that students are more in need of community services than they may have been in the past. She’s hoping that the day of picking can become an annual opportunity for students.
“This is a great way for (students) to build some skills and help the community,” Keaney said.
