It came to 14-year-old Mihir Anand while walking around his Glendora neighborhood.
Remembering the cherry and strawberry picking trips his family enjoyed at nearby farms, Mihir, then a freshman at Glendora High, pointed out that the fruit falling to the ground around their neighborhood needed picking too.
“Why don’t you do something about it, and I’ll support you,” his mother, Vineet Kaur, told him.
Mihir, now 18, did. First, he shadowed a food recovery group, the nonprofit Food Forward, which serves Los Angeles and Ventura counties. He quickly developed his own model, called it Fruitfully Yours, and organized volunteers among family and friends.
The team started with harvesting fruit from backyard trees, and as word of mouth promotion got around, Mihir recruited helpful supporters, including then Glendora Mayor Gary Boyer and later, La Verne Mayor Don Kendrick. Donors became volunteers, a chapter of Fruitfully Yours went up at Glendora High, and Mihir set up Fruitfully Yours’ social media arm.
Its Facebook page is a great record of resilience and hope during the pandemic. Socially-distanced pick No. 1 was on March 15, 2020, four days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The group picked 450 pounds of navel oranges and donated them to Shepherd’s Pantry. Four days later, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide shelter-in-place order.
“We asked ourselves, ‘Why stop when the need was even greater?’” Mihir said. They donned gloves, face masks, limited the number of volunteers but went on with their work. Now at socially-distanced pick No. 83, Fruitfully Yours has channeled fresh fruit to Shepherd’s Pantry and the senior nutrition program at La Fetra Center in Glendora.
The group’s slogan? “Don’t let it drop. Donate the crop,” Mihir said. “The bottom line is we don’t let anything go to waste.”
From backyard fruit trees to public orchards, Fruitfully Yours has planted seeds of community services with local Kiwanis clubs, city councils, the Glendora Community Coordinating Council, the annual health care fair at La Verne, and worked with Ann Croissant of the San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy.
“It’s amazing to see the beautiful fresh fruit that our local community donates every week,” said Craig Cerro, executive director of Shepherd’s Pantry. “The families who come to Shepherd’s Pantry are lucky to receive the fruit, compliments of the hard-working group at Fruitfully Yours. Mihir has the most committed volunteers in the community.”
Volunteers have picked fruit at Rubel Castle, the Glendora Historical Society Museum, and explored backyards in Glendora, Azusa, La Verne, San Dimas and Covina.
Along the way, they’ve recruited passionate supporters such as Mike Capps of La Verne and Courtney Lemming of Glendora, who spend many weekends helping out. They’ve not only picked fruit but also trimmed trees, delivered their harvest to local food banks and brought more volunteers into the happy crew. Aside from students from Glendora and San Dimas, recruits include Boy Scouts and professionals.
A recent pick was at the invitation of Glendora Councilman David Fredendall, who asked the group to harvest fruit from the citrus grove at the landmark Fairmount Cemetery, where he is a trustee.
About a dozen volunteers were treated to a short history lesson: Fairmount Cemetery, opened in 1876, was active until the 1970s. The Monrovia Nursery grew around it, and it was that company that planted a citrus grove in the cemetery in the 1950s, a commemoration of the expansive citrus industry that flourished in the Valley.
About half of the grove is still there, and these were the group’s focus: grapefruit, oranges, and kumquats. Past picks have yielded thousands of pounds of grapefruit, lemons, avocados, loquats, figs, pomegranates, guavas, persimmons, limes, apples and tangerines.
Paris Chakravarty and Tara Goller, both 16 and from Glendora, will serve as co-presidents of the Glendora High chapter of Fruitfully Yours in the fall.
“I love it, it’s really fun,” Paris said. “It’s good to get out and help the community.”
Paris’s parents also volunteer. Chuck Chakravarty said he also appreciates how volunteering with the group helps the students learn responsibility and hard work.
Heather Wylde of Glendora found Fruitfully Yours on a friend’s Facebook page. She brought her two sons, Robert, 15, and Dillon, 13, who are Boy Scouts, to several picks.
“I like to give back to the community,” Wylde said. Despite some health problems and personal struggles, “it was better for me to get out and do something. I’m willing to help where I can.”
Vineet Kaur, Mihir’s mother, is an IT project manager during the week and a passionate cheerleader on pick weekends. She will also take over the reins of Fruitfully Yours when Mihir, who graduated valedictorian from Glendora High, goes off to Stanford, majoring in computer science. Mihir, born in Pasadena, also attended Cullen Elementary and Goddard Middle School. The family moved to Glendora 12 years ago.
“Every time we go (on a pick), it’s an adventure,” Kaur said. “The ties we’re forming, meeting fascinating people, and we’re in nature, it was just a small thing at first, and people love it. It’s larger than ourselves now. There is such goodwill.”
For more information, “like” Fruitfully Yours on Facebook and email fruitfullyyours@outlook.com or call 626-250-9064.
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