Philip Dunn picks grapefruit at a home orchard in La Mesa. The property owners didn’t want the fruit, so Dunn and a small group of volunteers showed up with boxes and bags, hauled away what they could and donated it to the food pantry at the International Rescue Committee. | Photo Credit: Sam Hodgson
By Adrian Florido
On a bicycle tour through uptown neighborhoods last year, Philip Dunn kept noticing wasted citrus — oranges and lemons that had fallen off trees in people’s yards only to rot on the ground.
After a little research, he learned no organized groups picked the fruit so it wouldn’t go to waste. So he decided to do it himself.
Since last summer, Dunn has coordinated a small but growing corps of food activist volunteers. They call themselves urban gleaners, and they scour San Diego neighborhoods, peering over fences and knocking on doors in search of residents willing to let them haul their fruit away to local food pantries, where it’s usually easier to stock up on day-old bread and dented canned food than fresh produce.
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