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2024 AGO International Gleaning Symposium�Track 2: Building Your Skills�

Fruit Tree Care Services as a Revenue Stream

Julian Garcia, City Fruit

Tree Care Manager, ISA PN-9969-A

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MISSION

City Fruit stewards and harvests urban fruit trees to support sustainable and equitable access to fruit.

We help fruit tree owners grow healthy fruit, provide assistance in harvesting and preserving fruit, promote the sharing of extra fruit with neighbors, and work to protect public fruit trees.

Seattle is home to thousands of fruit trees; climate lends itself to tree survival even if several years pass without attention and maintenance; community embraces heritage trees (provide example of how historic trees are protected if time); apples, plums, figs, grapes, and Asian pears thrive here; different waves of immigrants helped to bring a variety of fruits that include transparent apples good for applesauce, Italian and Japanese plums, and many kinds of figs

Began as volunteer org operating out of founder's garage; Founder Gail Savina was involved in addressing food insecurity and saw that fresh fruit often was not donated to the food bank and meal programs where she worked; she mobilized her friends to identify fruit trees and knock door-by-door to ask neighbors to share excess fruit. What started in 2008 as a local food sharing program has now evolved to where we are today.

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PROGRAMS

Harvest Program

We harvest ~30,000 pounds annually from Seattle's orchards and private residences and distribute this fruit to 30+ community partners.

Education & Outreach

We provide educational workshops and volunteer opportunities on fruit tree care and Seattle's local food system.

Tree Care Services

We conduct tree care services to fruit tree owners to ensure trees produce quality fruit.

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ANNUAL REVENUE

Revenue	Projected 2024
Individuals (Membership Recurring Donations & One-Time Individual Donations)	$56,000
Events (Celebrates Cider Tasting, Trivia Night, Pint Nights)	$40,000
Corporate Donations	$40,000
Foundation Grants	$189,000
Government Grants	$43,000
Earned Revenue (Tree Care Services, Fruit Sales, Master Fruit Tree Stewards Registration)*	$133,698
Interest	$2,000
Total	$503,698

*Projected to be 27% of overall budget and helps fill in gaps elsewhere

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GENERAL MODEL

Paid service (just below market rate) for private residences and public spaces throughout the year
Revenue funds specialists’ salaries, general operating expenses, and leftover funds support the harvest program
Revenue stream is a reliable, consistent source of income for the non-profit and strengthens fundraising requests

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TREE CARE SERVICES REVENUE

Year	Private Residential Visits	Contracts/Public Workshops	Total	Percent Growth
2021	$52,590.51	~$2,200	$54,790.51	-
2022	$70,156.19	~$4,800	$74,956.19	37%
2023	$74,720.28	$6,470.66	$81,190.94	8%
2024	$29,446.04	$5,866.40	$35,312.44	~20% (projected)

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HISTORY

Began in winter of 2015 – two part-timers & volunteers
Part-time specialists until 2019
Developed full-time year round specialist position in January 2021
Hired second part-time specialist in 2022, and will be adding third in summer 2024

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PRIVATE WORK

Services include health assessments, pruning, instruction/coaching, integrated pest management, tree planting, and grafting
Conducted over 250 visits in 2023 season, and around 120 in 2024 so far
Below market rates on a sliding scale from $99-119 per hour
Rates have gradually increased from $75 per hour in ~2017 to today’s rates

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PUBLIC WORK

Contracts with other nonprofits, municipalities, and P-Patch gardens
Free community educational workshops, tree assessments and maintenance, and on-site training of employees
Promotes the stewardship of residential trees, and aims to improve the health and productivity of public trees

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GETTING THE WORD OUT!

Google searches – Jotform tree care request intake form on our site
Promote services on our social media platforms
Send out plugs in our monthly newsletters
Pass out business or quarter cards at local nurseries
In the process of developing referral partnerships with nurseries and professional tree care companies
Word of mouth

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PROGRAM GROWTH

Challenging yet promising
Seasonality effects of the work
Developing strategies to make work more year round
Maintain quality of work and provide specialists with necessary skills and resources to thrive

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PROGRAM GROWTH

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RESOURCES

City Fruit Tree Care Services
Caring for your own tree
NW Fruit Rescue guides
Authors: Lee Reich, Cass Turnbull, Michael Phillips, Ann Ralph
Plant Amnesty & Tilth Alliance
WSU Hortsense
PNW Pest & Disease Handbook

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Thank you!

Any questions?

Keep in touch:

julian@cityfruit.org

Liberty apple “arch” in Laurelhurst