Shouldn't we plant fruit trees on side walks so homeless can eat, amirite?

Sounds good, but the issue with fruit trees is they're usually too tall for people to just pick the fruit themselves. Then the fallen fruit attracts all sorts of pests, from stinging insects like wasps to the rats that most cities have at least a few of. So you may be feeding the homeless but if you don't carefully manage it, you're creating a separate pest problem besides.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

True true.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Theres also the problem of the hungry eating the fruit before its ripe. And the ripe fruits are often pecked at by birds. But the starving are so hungry that they dont care. But eating food like that can make you sick. You'd be hurting the very people you wanted to help.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Agree. My neighbor has fruit trees; avacados and citrus. They attract everything: rats, mice, skunks, squirrels, opossums, raccoons, coyotes, feral cats, crows, wasps, roaches, ants, skinks, lizards, slime mold, fungus, aids, white fly, aphids, horn worms, mealy bugs, cancer, double aids, and a 500 foot tall crustaceans from the Paleolithic era.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Starving?

by Anonymous 3 years ago

...Yeah dude.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Yeah but you know what also attracts pests like rats and cockroaches? Homeless camps. At least the humans wouldn't be as hungry 😕

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Uh, this solution would only tackle hunger, and then very likely only some of that. Unless you're building treehouses in those trees, it has very little to do with solving homeless camps. What you're going to do with fruit trees is make more rats that go live in homeless camps.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Nah. We pay city landscaping to keep up non-fruit bearing trees. It wouldn't be any more work and the trees could be trimmed to keep fruit reachable.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

>It wouldn't be any more work. I'm guessing you don't have fruit trees yourself. They're *not* comparable.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

you left out the legal issues if someone gets sick eating fruit from your property

by Anonymous 3 years ago

That's not a thing.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Hawaii is like this just because the volcanic soil makes everything grow.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

*And who's going to pay for all this...do you think fruit grows on trees?!*

by Anonymous 3 years ago

I like the idea is a community garden patch, that way people who are in hard times or homeless can get fruit and veggies. Of course you then have to make sure they are the ones getting the food, and not people when just want free stuff

by Anonymous 3 years ago

>Of course you then have to make sure they are the ones getting the food, and not people when just want free stuff Policing access to the garden would be really infeasible, though. Let it be for the community as a whole.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

A story an old lady told me about my home town: Back a few decades ago there were only fruit trees planted in the city, at least most of them. So in spring people from the city will come on your street and action of the trees, very low price and usually you will get the trees in front of your house and only if you didn't want them other people will bid on them. Part of the deal was that you taken care of the trees and in the fall you will pick the fruits and keep them. There are almost no more fruit trees in the city now so the system is gone, but I believe it was a good idea.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

The reason seasonal allergies are worse every year is specifically because we dont do this. Male trees are planted on street sides (as policy) for aesthetic, and they put off pollen and dont bear fruit. Fruit bearing (female) trees have been extensively lobbied against in urban ares for the stated reasons of street cleaning and the unstated reason that people hate the homeless.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

I was today years old when I found out trees have genders

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Welcome to the arboreal sciences

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Turning all the unused office space in to indoor farms. We could be growing tons of tomatoes, peppers, leafy veg and other easy to grow varieties. Homeless could come by and pick up a bag regularly.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

They already do this in Germany and it's great. No major problems with it I know of. Maybe a pear falls on your head if you are unlucky.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

We do this in Saginaw Michigan. There are some community gardens with a come and eat sign when the food is ready.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

You should look into what city arborists do. I don't know if it's universal but the city of Atlanta works with nonprofit groups to tend and harvest fruiting trees in the city and provide that food to shelters and food banks.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Yes you should but protect the trees so they don't cut them down for firewood 🪵

by Anonymous 3 years ago

No. Between pesticides and the mess from falling fruit making sidewalks dangerous this is a terrible idea. If you're going to do that, put the orchards in a secured location and take it from there.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

A long time ago I was homeless for 2 years, I can say from experience fruit trees are little to no help, maybe in part because there's not enough of them? Also that they are seasonal.. having said that .. every. little. bit. helps! and that's a great idea!

by Anonymous 3 years ago

The government could cut it down because they aren't paying taxes on the fruit /s

by Anonymous 3 years ago

So because you were homeless but didn't starve then that means no one in America is starving? Got it. You really are an idiot.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Back in the day, we were all just homeless people getting our meals off trees.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

If they are along the road the fruit may fall and hit the cars, which would probably be bad.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

I'm gonna tell you all a story that I swear is true. Years ago I was homeless and very, very poor. I often didn't have enough to eat. One day I was walking down the street in the hot hot sun, and I was so hungry, and thirsty too. I was parched in fact. And I walked by someone's loquat tree that was reachable without tresspassing. If you've never seen a loquat, they are a small fruit that is mostly a large pit with a little fruit around it. I was able to reach and pick three loquats. Not very much food. But I was so glad to have it, and nothing ever tasted better in my life. I never forgot that.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

In Austria we had/have (idk) a programm, where you could pay for a sponsorship for a fruit tree, which would be planted on public area. Sadly not many people participated.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Yes. We have fruit trees, they are all male. It was decided decades ago that female trees would make too much of a mess and the city would be liable for damages to cars, and all the rotting fruit would attract rats. As well as the leeching of heavy metals from the surrounding area into the fruit, which could poison people. All these concerns are addressable, but expensive.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Fruit is a poor source of essential amino acids. You can't live off of just fruit.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Expand on your idea and have all the homeless work on farmland that way they earn a wage and give back to society instead of being drain on it.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

You know they'd just spend that fruit on drugs

by Anonymous 3 years ago

This could result in people being teritorial like "this is my tree, i always get my food here, gtfo" or like "I am using this tree for my business so I can get out of the streets". It would only benefit some. If you are in the US, you are lucky enough to receive assistance from your government when you go homeless. But if you are in a third world country, then giving them trees to get free food would cause chaos, they would kill to keep that tree for themselves and their family.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Ya plant them right infront of your house so the homeless can go there

by Anonymous 3 years ago

*As though any of us have houses/houses that we can legally plant trees at, especially in urban locations where homeless would reasonably be.* The people who want to make change are, unfortunately, generally not the people with the power to enact it. You bet your ass if the city came by and was like "hey we wanna plant fruit trees for the homeless on your street, that cool?" I'd say hell yeah! "We'd also like you to participate in efforts to keep leaves and fallen fruit off the sidewalks/streets" sure fam, I'll pitch in. If charity meant just walking out your door and sweeping the walkway, I'd like to think most people would do it.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

How about when they start shooting drugs next to where your husband/wife gets in their car every morning? Maybe even loads the kids up to take them to school? Come on now.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Nah let's just do literally nothing about anything and let the people who have all the money completely run the show, rather than halfway run the show. Sound fair?

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Everyone wants to help the homeless until it's near their house / town. Then they want them gone. Truth isn't always the most pleasant to hear

by Anonymous 3 years ago

People like this.....

by Anonymous 3 years ago

My impression is that homeless people aren't all that into produce.

by Anonymous 3 years ago

Dumb idea

by Anonymous 3 years ago