An apple didn't have to fall on Jay Weintraub's head for him to come up with a great idea to prevent food waste and help people in need. After planting apple trees in the backyard of his Alford, Mass. home, he noticed how fast those apples accumulated, far beyond what he and his family could consume. With that in mind, he set out to help feed those in need throughout Western Massachusetts by gathering and distributing fresh fruit from his and others' trees with Backyard Bounty of the Berkshires. Unfortunately, poor weather this season has put the organization on hold until next year, when it also plans to distribute eggs. But Weintraub isn't worried — he has a pragmatic attitude about it. "Last year, there were so many apples, we couldn't give them away. But that's the story of farming!" Growing up on Long Island, I loved the beach. We (my wife and I) decided to look for a vacation home, but we couldn't find one we liked. As we were looking, the idea struck us that we knew a place. Our connection to the Berkshires goes far back; our children went to summer camp here, and we would come up and visit for a weekend. We eventually built a house in Alford and moved here part time in 2001 and were here almost every weekend. After retiring, we moved here full time in 2012. I love to hike, and Alford has a tremendous number of hiking opportunities. I started a hiking group in 2012 for senior citizens. We range from age 58 to 79. I had an idea to hike the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in Massachusetts. I got a core group together and we started in March, going from Massachusetts to Vermont on a series of day hikes over the course of the summer. We try to do a different trail every summer.
Jay and Backyard Bounty co-founder Mark Lefenfeld
A few years back, someone gave me an apple tree. And then I bought six others and some peach trees. Over time they matured and bore fruit, but we couldn't eat all of it. Last year, I looked at all the apples sitting there on the ground and thought it was really wasteful. I thought about how this could be remedied. I talked to a friend to try to find a way to locate people who also have trees in their backyard. Then we had to find volunteers to pick fruit, people with trucks or SUVs to transport them and then food distribution points. All through the winter, we worked on the back end of production. It was difficult to find food distribution points but we very easily found about 30 people who have trees and would allow volunteers on their property to come take fruit. We received a grant from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation to help pay for the few expenses associated with this, like ladders and poles, but overall, it's not really very expensive. When we got the grant, it was an affirmation. So we were all set up, with growers, volunteers and distributors, but Mother Nature did not cooperate this year. We knew, by the time May came around, it was going to be a very, very sparse year for fruit in the Berkshires. As the summer wore on, and we looked at trees, we knew it was insufficient to go on. So we are waiting until next year. The idea is still there, the will is there, and now, the infrastructure is there.
