Achieving the daily dose of two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables for a healthy diet is getting easier in Hume.
The council is giving away 150 fruit trees to schools, neighbourhood houses, workplaces, community gardens, churches, temples and mosques in the hope that produce will be shared through the community.
Hume mayor Adem Atmaca says community orchards are a great way for people to get more fruit into their diets. The National Health and Medical Research Council’s
Australian Guide to Healthy Eating says adults need to eat two serves of fruit and five serves of vegetables each day as well as a variety of nutritious foods from the dairy, meat and cereal food groups.
“There’s nothing like the taste of fruit that you’ve grown yourself,” Cr Atmaca said.
“Fruit trees aren’t time-consuming to maintain and you don’t have to be an expert gardener to provide the occasional serve of water and plant food.”
The citrus, apple, fig, pear, olive and stone fruit trees on offer have been cultivated by Brite Services at Broadmeadows. The organisation provides supported training and employment services for people with a disability and has a wholesale nursery on site that sells exotic and Australian trees, plants and herbs.
Broadmeadows Disability Services in Camp Road took on the growing of four fruit trees last year, with a group of green-thumbed staff looking after the citrus, apple and pear trees.
Chief executive Barb van den Vlekkert says the service will ask for six more trees this year so that there’s plenty of produce to share around again next fruiting. “Any fruit they bear is passed to the local food bank or used in our cooking program,” she said .
Apply for between two and 10 fruit trees by May 8 at www.hume.vic.gov.au/healthy or call 9205 2200.
Lexi Cottee
