In our house these days, big bowls of juicy red cherries are quickly disappearing as the season’s bountiful crop has made its way to supermarkets. For the cute little girl pictured here, there’s no need to go to the market. She and her family were fortunate to be part of our grantee, Salem (Oregon) Harvest‘s orchard picking yesterday. The orchard included a beautiful pond filled with fish and bullfrogs and offered a bucolic setting for 30 volunteer families to pick the harvest donated by the orchard owner. In return for their hard work  families were permitted to keep a portion of their pick while the remaining bounty was passed along to local social service agencies so that people who struggle to put even the most basic food on their tables can partake of this luscious summer fruit.

The Good People Fund’s support of Salem Harvest has allowed this formerly all-volunteer effort to hire its first Executive Director, Elise Bauman, whose hard work has increased the group’s output exponentially.