Free Fruit

The Ngongotaha Lions Club in New Zealand has given a barren roadside a whole new purpose.

In 2016 the club donated more than 400 fruit and native trees to the Rotorua Ngongotaha Rail Park. Lion Ross Thompson, organizer of the event, said funding from the city council enabled them to add fruit trees to the mix of native species they had planned for the roadside.

“We have positioned 25 fruit trees along the road so the local kids can walk by and grab a piece of fruit on the way to school,” he told the New Zealand Herald. He said they wanted to make the area nice for visitors and give the public access to fruit.

“Hopefully the native trees that we have planted will be there for hundreds of years to come,” said Thompson.

Community members including children joined the club in the planting effort. Bonnie Hutchings took her two daughters along to help plant the trees. “My girls loved it. My youngest heard about it through school and she really wanted to go,” she told the Herald.

“Lots of kids that were there will be able to go back and see the trees that they helped grow in years to come,” said Thompson.