Volunteers gathered Saturday to show that the orange trees on the Tempe campus aren’t just for decoration.
More than 30 students and staff members helped pick oranges from trees around campus as part of the Ground Services Volunteer Program.
There are more than 260 orange trees on the campus-wide arboretum, which holds about 8,000 pounds of Seville, Rootstock and Bergamot sour oranges. The trees are cultivated for both local businesses and educational purposes.
The harvest saves the citrus from becoming waste.
After the oranges have been harvested, local businesses like Whole Foods Market and the Aramark Campus Services at ASU give donations to support the volunteer program in exchange for oranges.
“Prior to 2008, most of the oranges were landfilled because of the lack of available time to find markets for these oranges and markets in general,” said Dawn Ratcliffe, a graduate student and former ASU Facilities Management Tempe Campus Recycling Coordinator.
Video by Jessica Heigh
According to the ASU arboretum website, the volunteers save ASU tens of thousands of dollars in staff hours spent working on the harvest.
Biology junior Abel Aguirre, a pledge member of the pre-health and dental club Alpha Epsilon Delta, said he volunteered Saturday to be productive and to fulfill required volunteers hours.
“[It’s] fun to be out here early in the morning with other people doing something you wouldn’t normally,” Aguirre said.
Harvesting the trees helps the University develop new business partnerships and strengthens previous ones.
Katrina Shum, Aramark sustainability manager, along with a select staff, also volunteered at the event in order to support the University with sustainable food and dining services.
“The project is a chance to [give] people a taste of what’s grown here at their university,” Shum said.
Reach the reporter at ctetreau@asu.edu
