“Cumberland — CUMBERLAND — Lou Simmons believes that if every farmer were to donate a small portion of each harvest to the poor, no one would go hungry in America.
Simmons, who turns 84 next month, is doing his part by donating every single apple, pear, peach and cherry from his modest orchard atop Irons Mountain to the Salvation Army in Cumberland. Salvation Army volunteers distribute more than 30,000 pounds of fruit from the Simmons orchard each year.
Kitty Willison, director of social services at the Salvation Army on East First Street in South Cumberland, said the fresh fruit adds to the agency’s food pantry and is a highly desired commodity each season.
“Something like that would be a little different,” Willison said. “A lot of times (clients) will ask us if we have fresh fruit or vegetables.”
On Friday, eight young men from the Green Ridge Youth Center in Flintstone toiled under the supervision of Mark Miller, resident adviser, on a cool and breezy morning. Simmons expected that over a four-hour period, the youth center crew would pick and pack into small boxes approximately 2,000 pounds of apples. Maybe more…”
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(Photo on homepage by DeusXFlorida, and top photo by Cumberland Time-News.)