LA Times article--"Making sure backyard fruit isn't wasted"

It was on walks with his dog Scout that Rick Nahmias became increasingly troubled by the citrus fruit he saw all around his Valley Glen neighborhood, dropping to the ground, rotting, when so many people were hungry. In Glassell Park Hills, on her walks, Hynden Walch saw food going to waste in her neighbors' yards, and she began running through ideas for how to use it.

It was the simplest of connections: fresh food that's free or nearly so, and people to eat it.

Nahmias and Walch, and others like them, are working at an intriguing crossroads: using e-mail, blogs, Facebook and Twitter to foster old-fashioned networks among their neighbors, or among like-minded people looking to make their world a little better. In the process, Walch has built a cooperative in which gardeners share their bounty, an idea that is quickly spreading. Nahmias established a group called Food Forward that has donated nearly 30,000 pounds of citrus fruit to food pantries this year.

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It works like this: A few days before the monthly exchange, Walch sends an e-mail. Everyone who wants to take part replies. On the designated Saturday morning, they drop off on her steps the fruits and vegetables they have, in bags labeled with their names and addresses.