{"id":2343,"date":"2021-06-16T18:35:13","date_gmt":"2021-06-16T22:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/?p=2343"},"modified":"2024-05-17T11:25:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T15:25:22","slug":"collaboration-reaps-fruits-of-their-labor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/for-the-media\/news-releases\/collaboration-reaps-fruits-of-their-labor\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaboration reaps FRUITS of their labor"},"content":{"rendered":"
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PRINCESS ANNE, MD-(June 16, 2021)-Three years in the making, the Fruitland Mini Orchard is ready for its first harvest.  University of Maryland Eastern Shore Extension<\/a>\u2019s Well Connected Communities<\/a> and Horticulture and Fruits program<\/a>s partnered with the City of Fruitland to serve the community by providing outreach activities to learn about backyard fruit cultivation and sustainability while addressing food insecurity in the Tri-County area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Situated on a 3,600 square foot plot in a corner of the Fruitland Recreational Park by the playground, the 46-tree orchard has the potential to yield 5,000 pounds of fruit per year, said Dr. Naveen Kumar Dixit, assistant professor of horticulture and extension specialist at UMES.  It includes eight different varieties of apple, pear, peach and plum trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis project shows that in a small area, we can produce a substantial amount of fresh, local fruit for the community,\u201d Dixit said.  \u201cOur motto is converting grasslands into fruit land.  We want to bring fruit cultivation, a once thriving industry on the Eastern Shore, back.  The best thing is we just helped plant the trees and provided guidance, but the success is due to the community members who have been taking care of the trees for the past three years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linda Powell, a City of Fruitland employee, took on a leadership role in organizing community members to \u201chelp out\u201d in the orchard.  Her persuasiveness has resulted in young and old alike pitching in to prune and care for the orchard year round.  She even has members of the Fruitland Volunteer Fire Department lending a hand with the watering detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been well received in the community.  It\u2019s nice to interact and get to know each other while we are working and learning about what we are doing and what we would like to achieve,\u201d Powell said.  Now that there is finally fruit on the trees, she said, community volunteers are anxious to partake of their labors.  \u201cThey ask, \u2018When can we get some!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project came about as a way to teach healthy eating and living habits and help address food insecurity in three Lower Eastern Shore communities, a goal of UMES\u2019 Nutrition and Health Program<\/a> and the Well Connected Communities initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation<\/a>.  A community-driven health needs assessment resulted in the selection of three different projects, one for each of the communities, including \u201cMake Fruits Available to All.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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 \u201cWe have to do our best to help the population get access to healthy food,\u201d said Dr. Virginie Zoumenou, director of UMES Extension\u2019s Nutrition and Health Program. She points to data from a 2019 Maryland food system map derived from the U.S. Census (2013-17) that lists those experiencing food insecurity at 18% for Somerset, 14% for Wicomico, and 12% for Worcester, above the average of 10% for the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMore importantly, empowering the community may lead to more positive and sustainable health behavior changes and may move all involved toward achieving health equity among all groups of people,\u201d Zoumenou said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above, from left:<\/strong>  Linda Powell, City of Fruitland; and Drs. Virginie Zoumenou and Naveen Kumar Dixit, both from UMES Extension.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At right:<\/strong>  Linda Powell (third from right) leads a group of volunteers at the Fruitland Mini Orchard.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gail Stephens, agricultural communications, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences, UMES Extension, gcstephens@umes.edu<\/a>, 410-621-3850.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRINCESS ANNE, MD-(June 16, 2021)-Three years in the making, the Fruitland Mini Orchard is ready for its first harvest.  University of Maryland Eastern Shore Extension\u2019s Well Connected Communities and Horticulture and Fruits programs partnered with the City of Fruitland to serve the community by providing outreach activities to learn about backyard fruit cultivation and sustainability while addressing food insecurity…Read more Collaboration reaps FRUITS of their labor<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","wds_primary_category":19,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-2343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2343"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=2343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}