Program on the Environment

In a city as rich as Seattle there is still a gap between who has access to food. This directly
impacts lower income and minority communities. In King County, about 12% of residents identify as food insecure. The main purpose of this research was to assess how fruit trees can positively impact and help combat food insecurity. To accomplish this, I created an online survey for King County residents to express their thoughts and knowledge on urban fruit trees. I conducted a policy analysis and updated a dashboard to quantify City Fruit’s social values into monetary values. In addition, I wrote a proposal to create a mobile application that would help identify the location of fruit trees in Seattle. The results from the survey indicate people value fruit trees as a food source for humans. However, there is a huge disconnect between people valuing fruit trees and actually utilizing them as a food source due to negative connotations being associated with fruit trees. This negativity includes the attraction of rodents, unharvested fruit creating a mess and not having the proper knowledge to care for fruit trees. The policy analysis also revealed a large disconnect with fruit trees as there is only one sentence in one of Seattle’s food policies that mention fruit trees. Creating a city fruit tree map could potentially resolve many of the issues regarding food insecurity. Providing a tool for community members to utilize would allow excess food to be tracked and distributed instead of being wasted.