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Welcome, Lorie!

02 Sep 2020, by Admin in Harvest Blog, National VISTA, Concrete Jungle

Lorie Bonham joins the Harvest VISTA program after more than 20 years as a marketing and communications professional. Lorie has lived throughout the US, Europe, and Australia and worked in both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. She was ready to dedicate more time to serving her community in a meaningful way and is incredibly excited to be joining Concrete Jungle. She has always been interested in urban farming, sustainable agriculture, and the role food plays in community, health, and connection.

Concrete Jungle is an Atlanta-based nonprofit that seeks to turn overlooked fruit trees and land into healthy food sources for communities in need. Concrete Jungle started in 2009 with a cider press gifted to two college students, who looked to foraged fruit for their first pressing. They harvested more than they could manage and donated what they and their friends couldn’t use to local hunger relief organizations. Since then, Concrete Jungle has donated over 150,000 lbs. of fresh produce — both foraged and grown on their ½ acre urban farm– to organizations that might not have access to high quality, fresh, local fruits and vegetables otherwise. Concrete Jungle also runs a nutrition education program in conjunction with several partner organizations and has partnered with Georgia Tech to create technology to monitor fruit tree ripening. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Concrete Jungle rapidly pivoted to create a COVID-19 Grocery Delivery Program to serve high-risk food insecure Atlantans.