It was around 9 p.m. on a recent Sunday when the four-alarm email came through: A large number of volunteers were needed in Brentwood first thing Wednesday morning to harvest 80 peach trees — ideally before all of the lovely, softball-sized fruit dropped to the ground and went to waste.

With apologies for the short notice, the email asked, might I be able to help?

These are the kinds of messages that pop into your inbox when you join Contra Costa Fruit Rescue’s scrappy band of volunteer fruit pickers. The volunteers harvest surplus cherries, peaches, apples and pears — whatever’s in season — from backyard orchards throughout Contra Costa County, donating the rescued fruit to local food pantries and soup kitchens.

Fruit Rescue is just one of a handful of fruit gleaning operations oversee

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