Farmer donates apple crop to MANNA FoodBank
Posted 09/19/11
EDNEYVILLE — Allen King was the man atop the tractor loading thousand-pound bins of apples into an Ingles refrigerator truck Friday on his land off Hyder-Allen Road.
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But King’s crop wasn’t headed for a supermarket. The 34 bins of fruit went to MANNA FoodBank — a gift of love from King and his wife, Sheree, to the community.
This is the second year the Kings have donated the harvest from their 6-acre orchard to the food bank, and they wanted to remain anonymous. But MANNA released their names.
“It’s not about self-recognition at all,” King said. “My wife and I felt it was a good thing to do.”
It was a sentiment shared among the 75 volunteers who picked King’s apples during the United Way’s annual Day of Caring, which kicks off the nonprofit’s 2011-12 fundraising campaign. More than 250 volunteers donated their time to 28 projects with 20 agencies on Friday.
A group of Pardee Hospital employees surveyed a tree in the apple orchard early Friday morning. After about 30 minutes, Gayle Sams smiled when the team of volunteers successfully harvested their first tree.
“For us, it’s great giving back to the community because the community gives back to us,” said Sams, director of the emergency department and clinical care.
During the harvest season, King expects volunteers to collect between 250,000 and 300,000 pounds of apples from his trees.
Ingles will transport the fruit to the MANNA Foodbank warehouse in Asheville, where it will be bagged and distributed across Western North Carolina. The fruit will potentially reach 100,000 people, according to Joshua Stack, MANNA’s communications and marketing coordinator.
In the 16 WNC counties that MANNA serves, one in six people seeks food assistance, said Jen Waite, MANNA’s food sourcing manager. A third of those recipients will be children.
MANNA has 230 partner agencies, including 13 in Henderson County, that distribute food.
“Henderson County folks are getting this food for their neighbors,” Waite said.
The volunteers brought sheer joy to their work, King noted. Under the orchard’s trees, the pickers talked about picnics and different uses for apples.
“It’s so exciting to be out here among my colleagues and sharing this time while contributing to the community,” said Bridget Barron, nursing director for psychiatric addiction therapeutic healing services at Pardee. “We enjoy each other very much, and we’re a great team.”
King said MANNA is planning a picnic to thank the volunteer fruit pickers, and he expects he and his wife will donate the harvest next year.
“The only regret I have is not telling every single person ‘thank you,’” King said. “One thing that really amazes me is the amount of people who volunteer their time.”
Reach Goodman at 828-694-7867 or jessica.goodman@blueridgenow.com.
