THIS VOLUNTEER FEEDS HIS COMMUNITY ONE TREE AT A TIME 

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Apollo Wong. Read his story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.  

Apollo Wong grew up picking fruit from the trees in his Taiwanese grandparents’ backyard. The effort, which took place on every family holiday, instilled in him an understanding of just how much produce a fruit tree can yield. While volunteering at a local homeless shelter, Apollo’s wheels started turning. He recognized how much demand there is in the Los Angeles community for fresh, nutritious food that can feed those dealing with food insecurity.  

Two years ago, Apollo decided to make his mission an official one. He founded Glean on Me, an organization that picks fruit from local fruit trees that would ultimately go to waste and distributes it to local food banks and homeless shelters. Apollo recruited primarily middle school and high school students to join him in harvesting parties. Thus far, the organization has run over 20 harvest events with the help of over 200 volunteers, gleaning over 10,000 pounds of fruit donated to 13 different local charities. Not only has Apollo harvested the equivalent of $35,000 worth of produce, but he’s also kept all that fruit that would have gone to waste out of a landfill. His 550 hours of dedication to the project have filled the plates of endless Los Angelenos. 

Currently a senior in high school, Apollo loves to get his friends and other classmates involved in Glean on Me’s harvest parties, and he’s hoping to pass the leadership of the organization off to someone in his community when he goes off to college next year. (He’s still planning on participating when he returns home during the summers.) But he’s also found a way to potentially combine his passion for sustainable agriculture with his future career plans. While he’s planning on attending college next year, he hopes to major in sustainable business or economics and environmental science, so he can learn how resources in communities across the world affect both the global and local outcomes of climate change and hunger. Apollo’s passion for feeding the people may have started by picking the fruit trees in his grandparents’ backyard, but his potential career path could serve as a force for combating food insecurity in the future. 

I grew up in a Taiwanese household where my grandparents took a lot of their farming heritage with them from their native country. They own a farm back in Taiwan, and at every family event, like birthday parties and Lunar New Year, we’d go in their backyard and pick tons of fruit. That really inspired me to get involved with fruit picking and care more about how much fruit a single backyard can actually produce. Two years ago, as part of my school’s community service educational requirements, I was volunteering at a homeless shelter. I saw firsthand the hunger in my community, because LA struggles with food insecurity across the entire county. Seeing that, I was really inspired to use the fruit that I saw being wasted all across my neighborhood. Every single time that I went out for a walk, I would see yards littered with fruit. I thought if I could combine my past in picking fruit with the people I see needing this fruit, then I could really make a big difference in the community.  

I really think that, in terms of the people that we see in our community, it matters a lot to care about our fellow man. The reason why I named my project Glean on Me is riffing offBill Withers’ old song, the classic “Lean on Me.” I do believe greatly in helping out one another, as well as helping out the environment. My project connects a lot of different parts of our community. Not only are we helping feed people, but we’re helping the environment because this fruit would otherwise fill the landfills and decompose into methane gas. Just seeing the broader impact of the work that I’ve had so far has really inspired me and encouraged me to keep going.  

When I founded Glean, I didn’t really know what I was doing. Thus far, it’s evolved into harvest events when we have registered properties, and we’ll recruit student volunteers and their families to come out to an event. We’ll coordinate with the homeowner, and we’ll coordinate with our partner for the day to know where the food goes. Then, while the event is currently going on, I’ll basically direct families and students on how to pick the fruit, where the fruit is going, as well as giving educational lessons while we’re picking fruit on why this work matters for the people we’re feeding and for the environmental damage that we’re preventing.  

Definitely seeing the kids. I used to have a lot of fun food picking. As I said, it’s just another thing that our family did. And whenever we get to properties, I usually try to educate middle school-aged kids. Just seeing how much fun they’re having outdoors is a really gratifying thing.  

I’ve definitely learned more about the issues of environmental damage and food insecurity here in our area. Also, in terms of organizational abilities, I’ve taken a lot of pride in how much I’ve learned over the past two years when it comes to leading people, reaching out to people, and figuring out how to put an event together.  

I think you don’t really know how much there is to do out there until you get involved. It’s very easy to sit at home and not realize there are a lot of people who need help. There are a lot of things that you can do, even if it’s just a small part, simply by going out there and learning more about an organization or participating with them for just a few hours once a month. People need to get involved with this sort of work, not only because of the cause, but because without getting involved, you really don’t know what’s out there and the types of opportunities to help that exist right in your own community.  

Find a few causes that you specifically care about, or if you truly have no idea what you want to get involved in, do your research. Get involved in community events. I typically see lots of other students there who are always doing the same thing, trying to just get the word out about various things that they care about. Being involved at a local level, and just being aware of what’s immediately available wherever you live, is a great way of getting involved with community causes.  

At the end of the day, my community project helps some people, but it’s not a massive project. It’s not world-changing. But I think knowing that, even as a teenager who is often told no, or is often told that you can’t do things, persevering, rolling up your sleeves, showing up, and putting in some extra hard work can really get some things done that help a lot of other people. 

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Apollo? Find local volunteer opportunities.