Velt and Pluk worked together with the City of Ghent to prevent food waste in and around the city. Together they founded the project ‘Buurtfruit Gent’. This project saved tons of fruit in Ghent and made local fruit available to everyone in the city. Buurtfruit Gent ensures the prevention of food waste and wants to redistribute this waste to the people.
Buurtfruit Gent wants to limit fruit waste to a minimum in (semi-)public spaces. To this end, Buurtfruit Ghent has undertaken different actions around urban orchards and smaller fruit harvesting sites with a limited number of shrubs or trees:
- Developing an inventory of all fruit trees and bushes in Ghent’s public and semi-public spaces.
- Communicating the city policy around harvesting fruit in public areas and inviting Ghent citizens to enjoy their local healthy fruit.
- Organising joint harvesting moments and workshops where citizens can learn how and when to harvest.
Buurtfruit Gent is a collaboration between Velt, Pluk & the city of Ghent that turned out to be very fruitful:
- 63 places fruit spots were found
- 4000 kg of fruit harvested by Pluk
- 2200 liters of juice made from harvested fruits