OCNews

A group of Okanagan College business students are putting the call out for volunteers from OC and the community to help them harvest fruit that will be used to make healthy snacks for children and others in need.

Started in the fall of 2018, FruitSnaps is a Vernon- and Penticton-based project, which sees Enactus OC students partnering with the North Okanagan Valley Gleaners Society facility, where unused apples from local orchards are dehydrated into snacks for local schools.

The FruitSnaps team will be hosting small, physically-distanced apple picking sessions at the orchard at 10168 Grey Rd in Coldstream during the following times:

• Thursday, Oct. 1 from 3:30 – 6:30 p.m.
• Sunday, Oct. 4 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.
• Tuesday, Oct. 6 from 3:30 – 6:30 p.m.
• Saturday, Oct. 10 – from noon – 4 p.m.

Find more information on the Enactus OC Facebook Events page.

Volunteers are asked to please don a mask upon arrival and while picking (a mask will be provided if you do not have one). Physical distancing of 2 metres (6 feet) will be required. Hand Sanitizer will be provided to the participants throughout the activity.

About FruitSnaps

FruitSnaps is a simple project that takes potential fruit waste and turns it into a delicious healthy snack for those in need. By dehydrating the apples picked, students are able to supply schools and food banks with a healthy alternative to their usual food donations.

The FruitSnaps project has garnered numerous awards over the past two years and continues to evolve.

This past May, the project team comprised of Karsten Ensz, Abigail Underwood and Marin Carruthers, backed by their faculty advisor Andrew Klingel, presented virtually at Enactus National Exposition. Their efforts earned them multiple awards and a podium finish.

To date, the project has provided more than 4,000 students with access to a healthy snack, engaged 33 community partners, diverted more than 8,300 kilograms (18,500 pounds) of food waste, and helped to conserve an estimated 3,885,000 litres of water (a figure based on the amount of water required to grow an apple, multiplied by the number of apples spared from going to waste). The team has produced more than 35,000 servings, including 12,000 distributed internationally.