Impact Your World

A ‘Concrete Jungle’ of produce feeds the homeless

By Jacqueline Gulledge, CNN
2 minute read
Updated 4:42 PM EDT, Mon October 12, 2015
Concrete Jungle has mapped more than 2,500 fruit trees in Atlanta, many of which are alongside interstates and highways.
Concrete Jungle has mapped more than 2,500 fruit trees in Atlanta, many of which are alongside interstates and highways.
Concrete Jungle
Concrete Jungle relies on volunteers to either pick fruit off the trees if they're tall enough or help shake the tree limbs so the fruit falls on a tarp.
Concrete Jungle relies on volunteers to either pick fruit off the trees if they're tall enough or help shake the tree limbs so the fruit falls on a tarp.
Concrete Jungle
Plums are some of the most prevalent fruit trees in Atlanta and can be found in public parks and people's yards.
Plums are some of the most prevalent fruit trees in Atlanta and can be found in public parks and people's yards.
Ethan Payne
Concrete Jungle is an Atlanta-based non-profit organization that provides fresh produce to area food banks and homeless shelters.
Concrete Jungle is an Atlanta-based non-profit organization that provides fresh produce to area food banks and homeless shelters.
Ethan Payne
All produce that volunteers pick is sorted and cleaned before being donated to local area food banks and shelters.
All produce that volunteers pick is sorted and cleaned before being donated to local area food banks and shelters.
Ethan Payne
A 'Concrete Jungle' of produce in the city feeds the homeless

Story highlights

Concrete Jungle picks fresh produce in industrialized areas and provides it to homeless shelters and food banks

It started with friends who had apples left over from a party, and it has now mapped more than 2,500 fruit trees in the metropolitan Atlanta area

Concrete Jungle plans to expand to other metropolitan cities across the United States

Atlanta CNN  — 

A single cider press and large quantities of apples may seem to portray an autumn harvest day at a farm, but they’re the inspiration for Concrete Jungle, a nonprofit organization in Atlanta that’s providing fresh produce to the city’s homeless population.

Several years ago, after Craig Durkin, Aubrey Daniels and their friends received a cider press, they decided to pick apples around the city and host a cider pressing party. Each year, the party grew in size, as did the amount of fruit they picked.

Then in 2009, when Katherine Kennedy, now the director of Concrete Jungle, said they had too many apples left over, they realized they could put that fruit to good use.

“We should just donate these apples. We should start by picking fruit to donate and then have a cider party at the end of year,” she said. “So basically, it was a group of friends that noticed how much fruit was around the city.”

The friends donated the extra fruit to a local homeless shelter, and Concrete Jungle was born. Its mission is to provide fresh local produce to area homeless shelters and food banks.

Durkin and Daniels realized that there was a huge need in Atlanta for feeding the homeless and a large supply of readily accessible produce throughout the city.

Kennedy said Concrete Jungle works to bring a local resource to those in need. “It was a matter of two really obvious dots, like we’re taking in all of the trees, and ‘Atlanta is such a green city’ and has the most dense tree canopy of any city. We’re also taking in the fact that there’s need everywhere. We see it every day, but sometimes we’re not connecting the dots. So, Concrete Jungle just connected the dots.”

Six years after the first donation, Concrete Jungle has mapped more than 2,500 fruit trees and bushes in the metropolitan Atlanta area at interstate ramps, public parks, abandoned industrial buildings and people’s backyards.

The organization is volunteer-based and hosts picking days, when the fruit is gathered and sorted. After that, the fruit is donated to food banks and shelters, such as the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

Fruit isn’t the only produce donated. The organization received a donation of land that it uses to grow vegetables, which it also donates.

Concrete Jungle is now working on a plan to create training kits so volunteer groups in other cities can start their own chapters. For more information, contact Concrete Jungle via its website (www.concrete-jungle.org/contact) or its Facebook page.