The document discusses how excess fruit from public trees in Chicago neighborhoods goes to waste while residents in underserved areas lack healthy food options. It proposes creating a real-time map and alerts system to empower communities to gather freely available, local produce and address food insecurity issues. Piloting the project in Logan Square could help connect residents with ripening fruit trees, teach foraging skills, and build relationships between local groups and food pantries to improve nutrition, health, and community engagement with the environment.

1. Problem:
The folks in the worst-
served neighborhoods are
eating Doritos and Pepsi
because in their world
there seems to be no
other choice.

2. Meanwhile,
Fruit trees on public
property in every Chicago
neighborhood are
dropping so much excess
fruit that they’re
considered a nuisance.

3. Urban culture
has cast wild fruit
as an object of fear
and derision.
The foraging knowledge
of generations past
has been lost.

4. Food Banks
could help,
but lack local knowledge
of ripening fruit trees,
and cannot risk the legal
liability of vouching for
uninspected food.

7. Empowering the food-disenfranchised
to take ownership
around neighborhood
nature resources.
Real-time alerts & maps to
gather community around
local trees ripening with
local, fresh, organic food.

8. In Logan Square,
Christopher House
sends its kids across the street
to Corner Farm Chicago
to learn to pick mulberries.
Then kids want to pick mulberries
everywhere.

9. Alleys
and local surroundings become
opportunities for real
engagement
 mulberries

10. The Living Almanac & Openlands map

11. Financial Sustainability
- Locate a restaurant, grocer or other local sponsor
focused on local / organic / foraged food
- Whole Foods
- Elizabeth
- CSA’s
- Peapod ???
- Build toward relationships with local agencies & NPO’s

12. Development plan
- Start with the most sustainable tree fruits
- Pilot in Logan Square with the Chicago Fruit&Forage
Mapping Project
- Locate a restaurant, grocer or other local sponsor
- Build relationships with local leaders & food pantries
- Host local “Forage Day”s
- Integrate social media, database, PDF generator

13. Value added
- Tech facilitation for existing resources
- Science & health education through real-world
engagement with the local neighborhood around food
- Tool for neighborhood orientation / connecting
- A strong motivator for getting outside, conquering
Nature Deficit Disorder, and curing Green-Blindness
- Intergenerational / Community / Local crowdsourcing

14. The world-changing that accomplishes:
Short-term:
- Real vitamins delivered as nature intended.
- Healthier kids and families.
- The #1 factor in student learning.

15. The world-changing that accomplishes:
Medium-term:
- Building healthy habits around eating.
- Transforming daily relationship with food, with nature,
with the rhythm of the seasons.
- Curing Green-Blindness.

16. The world-changing that accomplishes:
Long-term:
- Building a sense of place, of our local environment.
- Promoting a community ethic of self-reliance, curiosity,
engagement, and ownership.