CHARLOTTE, Mich. — Hundreds of families who may not otherwise have access to fresh produce will have Michigan apples to eat this fall.

About 1,000 volunteers from community organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and church youth groups participated in the fifth annual “Pick a Peck for People” event Oct. 30 at The Country Mill in Charlotte. In just four hours, they harvested more than 6,900 pounds of apples and packaged them into two- to three-pound bags for distribution at area food pantries.

Steve Tennes – who owns and operates the orchard with his wife, Bridget, their children, Brianna, Mary, James and Joseph, his dad, Bernie, and his wife, Beverly, and Tennes’ brothers and their families – said the event started on a smaller scale five years ago. It was to address an immediate need at the food pantry operated by their church, St. Vincent DePaul in Charlotte.

Since then, the project has grown annually. This year’s harvest topped the previous record of 5,000 pounds, netting more than 2,000 bags of apples.

“We saw a need with the food bank,” Tennes said. “As farmers, we looked at the crop we grow and tried to think of a creative way to make fresh fruit available to families in need. A big cost of food these days is harvesting, packaging and transportation.

“After the first year, we had more apples than the food bank here in Charlotte could handle.”

Now, about one-third of the harvested apples go to the St. Vincent DePaul food pantry, while the remaining fruit is donated to the Mid Michigan Food Bank, which is affiliated with the Greater Lansing Food Bank.

“We’re really affecting all of mid-Michigan and the greater Lansing area,” Tennes said.

As a member of Michigan Farm Bureau (MFB), the Tennes’ event is an example of how a member family has found a creative way to support the organization’s annual Harvest for All campaign. Harvest for All is a national program which encourages Farm Bureau members to help fight hunger in their local communities by donating surplus agricultural commodities, non-perishable food products, money and/or volunteer hours to local food banks.

Lori Chamberlain, manager of MFB’s Young Farmer Department, said the Tennes family is helping build rural communities through this effort. She said having relationships at the local level makes it easier for farmers to share their surplus product.

“People have realized that it doesn’t need to be a huge burden,” she said. “It can be a smooth transition and effort to get food into the hands of people who need it.”

In 2010, MFB’s Harvest for All campaign yielded 810 tons of surplus agricultural commodities and 4,071 volunteer hours – both nearly double from the year before.

Becky Brown, a troop mom with the Boy Scouts Troop #121, chartered by St. Gerard Catholic Church of Lansing, participated in the Pick a Peck for People effort with several of the troop’s members.

“It’s so much fun and a good experience,” she said. “Most of our troop members are inner city kids. One of our boys said he never knew that you pick apples off a tree – he had only seen apples in a bag in the grocery store.”

She said the project allows the boys “to physically do the work. It’s the actual labor of being in the fields, touching the fruit, carrying it back to the barn and packaging it. Having fresh food for those in need is important. I’m a firm believer that these boys, as Scouts, need to know the work involved, and not just the results.”

Brown’s troop picked three loads of apples, totaling more than 90 bags. “They were so enthusiastic,” she said. “It makes a difference in the kids’ lives.”

Tennes said inviting local groups to participate in the effort is a good way to connect agriculture and community service efforts. “For these groups, it’s a service project and a social event in the same day. People still have a need in the fall to do something that is harvest-related and fun,” he said, adding all of the volunteers coming together “is humbling.

“As farmers, we’re around it so much that sometimes we don’t always realize the value of the gifts that God has given us that are right in front of us, and that we’re really just a few steps away from really blessing someone.”

The Tennes family farms 120 acres. Of that, 35 are planted to apples – the farm’s main crop – which includes a U-pick operation. Other crops include pumpkins, sweet corn, peaches, blueberries and a corn maze. The family also operates a market, bakery and gift shop at their farm.

“We do U-pick, so people don’t get all the apples off the trees,” Tennes said. “For this project, the volunteers go out and pick an apple here and an apple there – it adds up to be nearly 7,000 pounds of apples that may or may not have been picked.”