Citrus Surplus In La Quinta Headed To Needy Families

LA QUINTA – Francisco Linares is one busy man.

“You got tokeep track of each box–who it belongs to–so they could get paid,” he says. “IfI mess up, they don’t get paid, and they’ll be mad at me.”

20 fruit pickers are stationed outside Rancho La Quinta, gathering the citrus that surrounds the gated community.

168 bountiful trees! All of their fruit headed to Hidden Harvest.

“The upside of it: It’s green, you know?,” says Sandra Carroll. “We’re recycling the fruit in the best way possible as opposed to filling up the landfills with it.”

Carroll says the collection is sorted in Hidden Harvest’s warehouse in Coachella, boxed up, and delivered to area food banks.

“They’d much rather get fresh food than leftovers from grocery stores. Leftovers are fine, but fresh vitaminC is better!”

To maximize their efforts,the organizationis leaving bins near Rancho La Quinta’s community pools. Residents can pick the fallen fruit themselves.

This is Hidden Harvest’s second year at Rancho La Quinta. Last year, workers collected over 45-thousand pounds of fruit.