Urban forager donates to food banks amid SNAP uncertainty
Urban forager donates to food banks
Eva Umana, known as @NeighborhoodFruitPicker, transforms backyard fruit abundance into community nourishment in Pasadena.
PASADENA, Calif. - Food benefits for more than 40 million Americans are expected to be fully restored within a day, but for many families who rely on them, the past few weeks have been stressful and uncertain. Many turned to local food banks and community fridges, finding help from neighbors when the government couldn’t step in.
One of those neighbors is Eva Umana, a Pasadena-based "urban forager" better known online as @NeighborhoodFruitPicker. Her mission is simple: turn backyard abundance into community nourishment.
The idea came to her during the pandemic, when she noticed her neighbors’ trees brimming with untouched fruit. She bought herself a fruit picker and reached out to the community via Nextdoor.
"I just posted, ‘Hey, if anybody needs help picking their fruit, I’ll come out and help.’ I got a huge response," she said.
She found a host of reasons that people weren’t picking the fruit: They were aging or didn’t have the time or energy to harvest their bounty. So she started picking, cleaning, and distributing the produce to her neighbors, and then to the broader community.
"I even started a free food pantry on my block, like a free little library, but with fruit," Eva adds.
Her small neighborhood volunteer project has grown into a grassroots food network that now supports LA Community Fridges — volunteer-run refrigerators that anyone can fill or take food from 24/7.
"I like to leave it better than I find it," Umana said while cleaning one of the fridges she regularly stocks.
Her work has been especially important for some of the Californians who rely on SNAP, known here as CalFresh. Through her work, she’s introduced people to produce they’ve never tried before and helped strengthen local food networks from the inside out.
"It’s such joy to do it. I don’t get paid for this, but I leave here feeling rich," she said. "It’s time we stop relying on our government and start taking care of each other."
Follow Eva on Instagram at @neighborhoodfruitpicker. You can also find LA Community Fridges on Instagram at @lacommunityfridges.