In what is quickly becoming a fruitful partnership, West Virginia University Extension and The Farmlink Project recently teamed up to distribute 200,000 pounds of grapes in five counties.

This comes on the heels of a similar project in December, when educators with the WVU Extension Family Nutrition Program distributed 436,200 pounds of surplus apples provided for free by The Farmlink Project.

“I think we helped a lot of people,” said Brianna Hawkins, nutrition outreach instructor with the Family Nutrition Program. “We probably could’ve given out 20,000 more, honestly.”

Hawkins distributed her portion of the grapes on March 18 in downtown Pineville, setting up shop near the Wyoming County Courthouse and the local health department. The Wyoming County Food Pantry helped spread the word out about the giveaway, but the sight of pallets overflowing with free grapes drew lots of interest from passersby in the small town.

“We got rid of them in about six hours,” Hawkins said.

The Farmlink Project — a national nonprofit that specializes in getting surplus fruits and vegetables into the hands of people who need them, charging no fees for its services — delivered the grapes. Volunteers from the food pantry, local solid waste authority and Wyoming County Day Report Center helped unload and distribute the fruit. Hawkins advised locals about the best ways to store and freeze them. She also provided healthy recipes featuring grapes.

Family Nutrition Program staff also distributed the free grapes in Calhoun, Gilmer, McDowell and Preston counties. In two counties where giveaways took place, Wyoming and McDowell, communities are still recovering from devastating floods that occurred in February.

“Whenever Farmlink calls and asks, ‘Would you like some free produce?’ our staff always says ‘yes,’” Kristin McCartney, Extension specialist and SNAP-Ed coordinator with the WVU Extension Family Nutrition Program, said. “The partnership with Farmlink has not only been a blessing at a time when communities are struggling, but it also has been a demonstration of the true spirt of neighbors and friends coming together to feed each other.”

McCartney added, “We have passionate people all over the state who are committed to promoting healthy habits in their communities. To them, distributing 40,000 pounds of grapes is just another day at the office.”

Hawkins said locals were overjoyed to get the free fruit, which one volunteer calculated would cost about $90,000 at a big box grocery store.

“There were a lot of jokes about making wine. Some people talked about making jelly and just eating them,” Hawkins said.

WVU Extension Family Nutrition Program’s work is supported by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service.