A Bountiful Harvest
An SCE retiree helps found a nonprofit to harvest trees and collect fruit for those in need.
In Orange County, about 60 percent of homes have a fruit tree in the yard producing fruit every year — too much for the average family to consume on their own. Jeff Lebow — a Southern California Edison (SCE) retiree — noticed this and saw an opportunity.
In his hometown of Huntington Beach, Lebow saw fruit on the ground — wasting away. He also knew that Orange County has more than 400,000 residents going hungry.
“In 2008, I was up in my own tree picking persimmons to donate to my church for Thanksgiving,” Lebow said. “It was taking hours and I remember thinking, ‘boy, I could really use some help with this.’”
A year later, Lebow and a group of friends founded the Harvest Club of Orange County. At the time, he was working as a project manager in SCE’s Economic Development Services where he helped potential customers create new startup businesses. Creating a club to tackle the fruit problem was a natural fit.
