A drive to save West Virginia’s 2023 apple harvest from being discarded has turned into one of the largest food recovery efforts in history. It is the largest rescue yet for Farmlink, which was started by college students during the pandemic to link up discarded food from farms with food banks.

Just before the harvest began, processors told a dozen apple growers in West Virginia that their contracts were cancelled, leaving millions of pounds of apples without buyers.

“Imagine 80% of your income is sitting on the trees and the processor tells you they don’t want them,” Carla Kitchen of Berkeley County told NPR. “You’ve got your employees to worry about. You’ve got fruit on the trees that need somewhere to go. What do you do?” It was the first time in 36 years that she didn’t have a market for most of her harvest.

She wasn’t alone. Across the US, growers were left without a market, because of full storage warehouses due to weather, bumper crops that kept domestic supply high, and declining exports due to retaliatory tariffs from India that only ended this fall. The significant surplus meant processors could not accept any more apples for production to make applesauce, concentrate, and other products.

One of the farmers who works with Farmlink told the story to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin. He brought together the US Department of Agriculture and West Virigina Department of Agriculture to create an apple relief program that purchased $10 million worth of apples from a dozen West Virginia growers. 

But the program did not cover all harvesting, packaging, transportation, and delivery costs. That’s where Farmlink stepped in to help, and apples were donated to hunger-fighting charities across the US from South Carolina and Michigan all the way to The Navajo Nation, as well as to schools and families in need in West Virginia.

Mike Meyer, head of advocacy at The Farmlink Project, says it’s the largest food rescue they’ve ever done and they hope it can serve as a model. 

“There’s over 100 billion pounds of produce waste in this country every year; we only need seven billion to drive food insecurity to zero,” he says. “We’re very happy to have this opportunity. We get to support farmers, we get to fight hunger with an apple. It’s one of the most nutritional items we can get into the hands of the food insecure.”

While many growers in Maryland and Virginia didn’t harvest their apples, Timber Ridge Fruit Farm in Virginia was able to take part because they also own orchards in West Virginia. Third-generation grower Cordell Watt says it was the first time he can remember that the processors put everyone on a quota.

 “The program with Farmlink has really taken care of the fruit in West Virginia, but in a lot of other states there’s a lot of fruit going to waste,” he told NPR. We just gotta hope that there’s funding there to keep this thing going.”

Farmlink delivered the first truck load of apples on September 29, and they were still doing it in November. They estimate that recovering and delivering all the available apples will cost the nonprofit nearly $1 million.

“It’s the first time we’ve done this type of program, but we believe it can set the stage for the region,” says Kent Leonhardt, West Virginia’s commissioner of agriculture. “People in need got nutritious food out of this program. And that’s the most important thing.” Approximately 400,000 bushels of apples have been distributed, with a focus on Appalachia and communities in need.

Following West Virginia’s rescue program, the USDA announced an additional $100 million purchase to relieve the apple surplus in other states. This is the largest government buy of apples and apple products to date. But sadly, with the harvest window coming to an end, many growers have already left their apples to drop and rot.

Sources:

Millions of U.S. apples were almost left to rot. Now, they’ll go to hungry families. NPR Nov. 27 2023

Rescuing 16 Million lbs of Apples. Farmlink, Nov. 22, 2023.

West Virginia Students Enjoy Fresh Apples Thanks to State’s Surplus WV News Report, Dec. 6 2023