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Kaitlyn Ganrude is originally from La Crosse, Wisconsin. During her college career at the University of Wisconsin – La Crosse, Kaitlyn decided to pursue a degree in Public Health/Community Health Education. She found that this path aligned well with her broad desire to help communities through the avenues Public Health offered. Once finished with her degree, Kaitlyn decided to join AmeriCorps NCCC as a way to get hands-on experience with communities in need. Here, she served as a Team Leader, traveling across the United States working on a variety of projects from COVID-19 relief, environmental stewardship, urban development, and healthy futures. It was also here that Kaitlyn found her a strong affinity for non-profit work, and fighting food insecurity. After serving several months in Durango, CO working on food security, Kaitlyn found that she would like to help communities create sustainable food systems that provide access to nutritious food for all in socially conscious ways. 

Kaitlyn will be working with the organization City Fruit in Seattle, WA. This organization works to harvest and glean thousands of pounds of fruit each year and distribute it to local food banks, food programs, restaurants, bakeries, and farmers markets to create a more sustainable and equitable food system. The City Fruit team “help tree owners grow healthy fruit, provide assistance in harvesting and preserving fruit, promote the sharing of extra fruit, and work to protect urban fruit trees.” Kaitlyn will be working as a harvester this summer season to glean as much fruit as possible and also working to form relationships with local restaurants and bakeries for distribution purposes.