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World Hunger Solutions

user@domain.com — 2012-03-15T10:12:25-07:00

GENISIS ON GOD'S FIRST COMMAND: PLANT FRUIT TREES
Olivia Ellis PhD, my gifted Cherokee guide, who is a Master Gardener and Garden Guide at President Jefferson's Monticello Gardens, told me that in the book of Genesis, God's first command was, "Plant fruit trees." Yet along the way much of humanity forgot.

WHO ARE HUNGRY?
Hunger, the main cause of death, happens mainly in developing countries: Asia, the Pacific, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Developed countries like Europe do not have widespread hunger, except for the United States. But in asking some questions, Olivia revealed the resources that have been available to help win that victory!

SCHOOLS THAT ROCK!
CommonVision.org's "Fruit Tree Tour" takes a busload of green-thumbed youth with a rock band to help students and teachers create orchards with the FREE trees they bring to California schools. But anyone could quarterback a program like this in the U.S. and anywhere.

A fruitful harvest

user@domain.com — 2011-12-01T19:10:04-08:00

By planting trees for a campus orchard, students at Deer Creek Elementary were also laying the seeds for an understanding in environmental consciousness, said members of Common Vision, a traveling tree-planting troupe that organized the lesson.

With holes already dug, students broke into groups and helped plant 18 young fruit trees on Friday, Nov. 18, at the northwest corner of the Deer Creek Elementary School campus, behind the baseball field.

They planted Gala apples, Osborne Prolific figs, Santa Rosa plums, Arctic Glo nectarines, Hachiya persimmons, Yellow Bell apples, pears and pomegranates.

Common Vision comes to Chico

user@domain.com — 2011-10-07T13:27:21-07:00

In pursuit of fruit; schools get orchards

user@domain.com — 2011-09-26T10:27:49-07:00

By Laura Christman

Montgomery Creek School students got a hands-in lesson Friday — they put their hands right in the dirt.

"Everybody pick up a handful of soil," Common Vision volunteer Rinah Segal told several students standing around a tiny pear tree. "In this handful of soil are billions of creatures too small for you to see. It's really amazing, huh?"

Common Vision brings tree-planting expertise to students

user@domain.com — 2011-09-21T14:21:17-07:00

By Karen Rifkin

With the mid-day sun beating down on the valley of Ridgewood Ranch, they appeared simultaneously, seemingly choreographed, with pick axes and shovels in hand and began digging holes, about five feet apart, in a semi circle behind the gazebo of the La Vida Charter School classroom building. They are young adults, environmentalists, who share a common vision.

In 2005, Megan Watson, her husband, Leo, (both of Hopland) and Michael Flynn were working as volunteers planting vegetable gardens with students at continuation high schools in Los Angeles. When they introduced donated fruit trees the kids got really excited and felt like this was something that would last a long time, a gift they could give to the future. Inspired by their own students, the three founders of Common Vision realized they wanted to plant more fruit trees and work with students and schools throughout the state of California. With their idealism and one bus, they initiated the project.

Food Forethought

user@domain.com — 2011-04-12T11:33:02-07:00

I’ve said it before, I love trees. So when I read about the Fruit Tree Tour and its mission to introduce school children to the wonderful world of planting, growing, and nurturing trees, fruit trees in particular, I became very excited indeed.

Common Vision brings sustainability to fruition

user@domain.com — 2011-03-29T11:33:29-07:00

By Greta Mart

A vegetable-powered bus transporting a group of educators and performing artists will soon arrive in Martinez to plant fruit trees and spread the good word: sustainability.
Common Vision, a non-profit based in Ukiah, is comprised entirely of volunteers and tours the state on an educational mission to plant fruit trees on school campuses and bring environmental education to life with music, theater and a day-long adventure.

“Since 2004, the Fruit Tree Tour Program has directly impacted 80,000 students, transformed over 180 low-income schools and community centers into abundant orchards with the planting of over 4,300 fruit trees,” according to the organization. “Every year 20-30 volunteers board the world’s largest vegetable oil powered caravan on a 2.5 month mission to change the urban landscapes of California.”

Tree-Planting Tour Stops Everywhere in Bay Area Except San Francisco

user@domain.com — 2011-03-29T09:36:44-07:00

In a city where lawmakers so joyously took the happy out of the Happy Meal, it's curious why San Francisco is now skipping out on an opportunity to teach kids that apples are tasty, too.

This week, the award-winning Fruit Tree Tour is descending on almost every city in the Bay Area, with its volunteers who will plant trees in school yards and give students a crash course in eating organic.

Everywhere except San Francisco, that is.

Fruit Tree Tour 2011

user@domain.com — 2011-03-21T12:49:13-07:00

Through the organization Common Vision, a band of 20-30 people (aka, the Fruit Tree crew) are making a tour of California in the “world’s largest vegetable oil-powered caravan” to visit various schools and communities to plant, perform, and paint (the 3 P’s).

Fruit Tree Tour Draws Massive Crowds for Sustainability

user@domain.com — 2011-03-22T12:43:06-07:00

Common Vision's Fruit Tree Tour has made the pages of TreeHugger a few times before, and not without good reason. After all, a program that introduces school kids across California to sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and the importance of trees is—almost by definition—something we get pretty excited about. But I hadn't realized quite what a huge undertaking this was until, that is, I started watching Fruit Tree TV...

San Ysidro campus is a stop on Fruit Tree Tour

user@domain.com — 2011-03-10T15:02:39-08:00

Last week, the kids at La Mirada Elementary School in San Ysidro got a visit from a big ol’ bus full of bare-root fruit trees and a crew that helps plant the trees at schools and teaches students, staff and community members about caring for them.

“It was so wonderful,” said Mariana Osuna, wellness coordinator for the San Ysidro School District. “They are a group of volunteers who have driven up and down the state of California planting fruit tree orchards.”

We Love Our Trees

user@domain.com — 2011-03-08T08:42:37-08:00

By Abigail Lewis

There are places in the world where most of the trees have been chopped down for firewood. That’s like shooting the goose that lays the golden eggs, and eating it for dinner. Once the tree is gone, so, too, is the shade from its canopy, the breeze from it’s swaying leaves, the oxygen it produces as it processes our carbon dioxide, and any seeds or fruit it might contribute to the survival of living creatures.

Students get tree-planting lesson

user@domain.com — 2011-03-01T17:03:38-08:00

A statewide trek promoting fruit tree planting, environmental awareness and sutainability to elementary school students stopped at Santa Ynez Valley Charter School on Wednesday, Feb. 23.

Will Rogers students, Common Vision plant fruit trees at Ventura school

user@domain.com — 2011-02-25T22:52:24-08:00

Students had big smiles and dirty hands Friday as they dug their fingers into the soil to plant trees at Will Rogers Elementary School in Ventura.

The students were guided by the visiting members of Common Vision, who are on the group's Fruit Tree Tour. Common Vision members arrived in a vegetable-oil powered bus and first performed a musical skit about carbon footprints, how to take care of the Earth by growing food and the benefits of composting. Common Vision is a group that works with schools to educate and inspire environmental action through performance and hands-on activity.

Taylor Students Plant Fruit Trees

user@domain.com — 2011-02-24T12:54:55-08:00

Students at Taylor Elementary School rolled up their sleeves and planted trees today

The school in Santa Maria was visited Common Vision, a non profit organization that travels around California, turning school campuses into orchards.
Volunteers teach students the basics of tree and plant growth, as well as healthy eating.

Megan Watson, with Common Vision says, "you can grow your own healthy food wherever you are and that you can work together to make positive changes in your community."

On Wednesday the Common Vision bus head to a school in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Fruit Trees for Kids

user@domain.com — 2010-06-24T22:37:32-07:00

By Lindsay Hanks

The Fruit Tree Tour theater troupe teaches sustainability, organic eating and the importance of environmental responsibility to California students.

It starts with a seed. And that one seed will make a difference. (A tree. A child.) Cultivate the seed carefully, and you will see the fruit of your labor. (Change.)

That’s Common Vision’s philosophy.

Whether on the stage or in the field, the nonprofit organization’s Fruit Tree Tour theater troupe raises community awareness for local eating and sustainable living.

“Common Vision’s goal is to inspire diverse people into taking care of the planet,” says Michael Flynn, director of education and program development, adding that the organization tries to creatively engage people in its message. “Planting trees is empowering, it’s fun, and it’s community building. It helps us understand the reciprocity in our lives and our communities.”

Since 2004, the Fruit Tree Tour group has taken its message of sustainable living to the streets, visiting about 40 low-income schools across California each year. They teach children environmental stewardship and to plant fruit trees in the schoolyards, which provide nutrition to schools that lack healthful lunch programs.

Common Vision Fruit Tree Tour turns schoolyards into orchards

user@domain.com — 2010-04-10T22:35:03-07:00

by Frederick Carle

Students at Bret Harte Elementary school in San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunter’s Point neighborhood recently got their hands a little dirty turning sections of their schoolyard into a small scale fruit orchard.

The school was a stop on the Common Vision Fruit Tree Tour, which has been making yearly trips the length of California putting on environmental education events at elementary schools. A group of 25+ volunteers walk school groups through their own fruit tree planting and involve them in a day’s worth of environment themed activities including West African drumming, theatre and hip-hop poetry.

“We looked around and saw this obvious need, ‘one’ for localized food systems and ‘two’ to just be a spark for kids to really start to look around and see that solution focusing is possible and that it’s possible to better the communities around their schools,” said Leo Buc, a volunteer educator with the group describing the group’s mission. The Common Vision organization travels in converted buses that run on pure vegetable oil recycled from restaurants along the journey.

From Fruit Tree Tours to Orcas Island’s FEAST, Hartzell & Cheevers Bring Hope to Kids

user@domain.com — 2010-04-27T22:30:58-07:00

“We’re the earth’s immune system kicking in.”

Whitney Hartzell and Owen Cheever returned to Orcas Island earlier this month from their six-week Fruit Tree Tour and have already dived into plans and programs for this summer’s Farming Education Sustainability for Teens (FEAST) program.The pair are natural teachers and leaders who are keen to reach young minds and offer hope in a sustainable future.

During February and March, Owen and Whitney traveled through California on the world’s largest recycled-vegetable oil caravan, with Common Vision’s 7th annual all-volunteer Fruit Tree Tour.

Common Vision helps plant 15 fruit trees

user@domain.com — 2009-11-20T22:25:02-08:00

by Linda Williams

A group of area residents and members of Common Vision planted a small orchard on the grounds of the Willits Integrated Services Center on November 11. Willits was one stop on the Common Vision Fruit Tree Tour in Mendocino County. The group also planted trees from November 4 to 12 all around Mendocino County, from Round Valley High School and Indian Health Center to Fort Bragg and Ukiah. The group has been travelling up and down California in its buses powered by recycled vegetable oil for the past six years, planting fruit trees in 150 low-income schoolyards and community centers.

Fruit Tree Tour rolls again. A "Bus full of hope!"

user@domain.com — 2007-02-18T22:18:14-08:00

World´s largest veggie-oil powered caravan plants thousands of fruit trees at California inner-city schools 4th year in a row.

This week in California the world´s largest veggie-oil powered caravan, covered in forest-scape murals and carrying 1000 fruit trees and 27 volunteers, rolled out of Riverside and to begin its annual 20-city, 70-day tour to urban schools from San Diego to Sacramento.

In a one-of-a-kind day-long interactive outdoor program that includes West African agricultural drumming and eco-conscious hip-hop, Common Vision´s Fruit Tree Tour teaches inner city students how to turn barren school yards into abundant orchards, creating living classrooms with the potential to produce enough fresh fruit for the a school´s cafeteria and community.

Starting this year, all trees planted by students at Los Angeles public schools during Fruit Tree Tour will count toward the city´s ambitious new Million Trees LA initiative. On March 3 at Los Angeles City Hall in an street-closing event expected to draw thousands, Ed Begley, Jr. will introduce the Fruit Tree Tour drummers who will sound the beats to launch the new Keep LA Beautiful Campaign at a kick-off rally for the Great American Cleanup.

Fruit Tree Tour plants orchards at California’s neediest schools

user@domain.com — 2010-03-04T22:14:32-08:00

Kind of hippy, but super cool: A veggie oil–powered caravan packed with tree-planting do-gooders is now touring the state of California, planting orchards at underserved public schools and performing a green theater extravaganza for the students. Started seven years ago byCommon Vision, a nonprofit that brings environmental education programs to needy urban and rural communities, the Fruit Tree Tour now has some serious muscle behind it, thanks to an Emmy Award win in 2008 and a recent sponsorship by organic foods powerhouse Organic Valley.

Johnny Appleseed Goes to School

user@domain.com — 2010-03-04T22:12:46-08:00

by Della Watson

It's common for city-dwellers to grow up without ever learning to plant a tree or tend a garden, and a California-based group hopes to change that. Eco-theater troupe Common Visionrecently embarked on their annual Fruit Tree Tour in a veggie oil-powered bus caravan with stops scheduled at schools throughout the state. At each school, the group inspires eco-awareness through skits about the environment and eco-raps set to traditional African drum beats.

Emphasizing the value of local food, the group helps kids plant fruit trees on their school grounds. "Simple acts like planting a tree and growing food have a ripple effect that can create big change for a healthier people and planet," says organizer Megan Watson. Now in its 7th year, the Fruit Tree Tour has given about 45,000 students the experience of planting a tree and watching it grow.

Organic Valley Helps Fruit Tree Tour

user@domain.com — 2010-03-04T22:09:47-08:00

Organic Valley is helping Common Vision’s Emmy Award-winning Fruit Tree Tour bring its green theater to urban kids. In a circus-like program featuring a live band, puppets and characters like the rhyming farmer, a team of time-traveling ecogeeks, and Wendy Bob, a 5-foot singing earthworm, bring to life important lessons about healthy food and where it comes from.

Orchard planted at Bay View to teach sustainability

user@domain.com — 2010-02-24T22:03:30-08:00

by Geoffrey A. Paulsen

A traveling crew of modern-day Johnny Appleseeds stopped in Santa Cruz on Tuesday to teach students about caring for the environment and to plant a 20-tree orchard at Bay View Elementary.

The traveling caravan, known as the Fruit Tree Tour, is a program run by the nonprofit Common Vision. The fleet of buses and vans is run on vegetable oil and houses the 27-person crew during the tour. Common Vision partners with schools and other groups throughout California to encourage sustainability.

"In our garden, there is this vacant spot and I was dreaming of planting an orchard and so I contacted Common Vision," said Libby Christensen Rayburn, nutrition educator at Bay View.

Ukiah teens plant trees with a Common Vision

user@domain.com — 2009-11-12T22:00:17-08:00

by Carole Brodsky

"Working Together, We Can Make the Future Better"

So goes the motto of Common Vision, the Emmy Award-winning creators of the Fruit Tree Tour. The group began their seventh annual statewide tree-planting event in Mendocino County this week.

With rooftop solar arrays and hand-painted murals, Common Vision's bio-powered buses and trucks carried 15 modern day Johnny Appleseeds to four schools and two community centers in Mendocino County. Two hundred fruit trees were planted by students and community members.

Miles Gordon, director of the NCO Gardens Project and member of Ukiah ReLeaf, says the tour is a perfect fit for schools, local food groups and community organizations.

Green is the word...

user@domain.com — 2009-04-01T21:58:05-07:00

The industry has adjusted to the money woes, making cuts and fund- raising like crazy. If only we could work as hard and fast on environmental problems. A few theatre educators believe we can and they lead the way in this month’s News Bites.

GREEN IS THE WORD THIS MONTH. IT’S GOT GROOVE, IT’S GOT MEANING. THAT’S what several West Coast organizations are out to prove. The University of Oregon in Eugene and Earth Matters on Stage will host the first Ecodrama Playwrights Festival and Symposium on Theatre and Ecology, from May 21 to 31. Prior to that, Common Vision volunteers will be driving around Calif. in their vegetable- oil-powered fleet, connecting kids and Mother Earth on their Fruit Tree Tour.

Common Vision Takes Environmental Message to California Schools

user@domain.com — 2009-04-21T21:56:06-07:00

by Mike O'Sullivan

A California organization called Common Vision is taking a message of environmental protection to schools around the state. Two dozen young people have been on the road since February, traveling in buses powered by recycled cooking oil. At each stop, they teach students about conservation through music, dance and other fun activities and help them plant fruit trees in their schoolyards.

The non-profit organization was formed in 1999 to bring together environmentalists and gardeners with musicians and artists. The result was a two-pronged approach to conservation education: presenting skits and songs showing how waste harms the environment and greenhouse gases worsen global warming, and planting trees that produce oxygen to help the environment and provide fruit to help feed us.

Fruits of their labor

user@domain.com — 2009-04-09T21:54:31-07:00

by Katie Booth

Earth-conscious group spreads sustainability message through music, planting trees

Michael Flynn swayed lightly from side to side in a rickety swing built for two. Resting in the shade of an old barn at the GRUB co-op, he stared out onto a caravan of brightly painted buses. Behind the caravan, green fields stretched out against a warm sky, and a breeze stirred the air, on the end of which summer could be tasted.

This was becoming his favorite spot, Flynn said.

From his vantage point, he looked out on the fellow members of the caravan, packing up in anticipation of the next town, the next group of kids.

“Every community has its own flavor,” Flynn said, and he certainly would know. In the course of 70 days, starting in the beginning of February, he and 24 other volunteers are traveling to 20 cities throughout California as part of the sixth annual Common Vision Fruit Tree Tour.

Fruit Tree Tour aims to promote a healthier California

user@domain.com — 2009-04-02T21:53:16-07:00

by Andrea Koskey

Common Vision’s sixth annual Fruit Tree Tour, a 30-city, 70-day tour to plant more than 1,000 fruit trees, will be in San Francisco on April 10. The nonprofit’s project director, Megan Watson, explains the significance of their work. For more information, visit www.commonvision.org.

What is the mission of the Fruit Tree Tour?

The larger mission is to create a healthier and more-just planet, starting in California. Our primary outreach is to low-income, rural communities across 30 cities in the state.

The tree-planting program primarily visits underserved neighborhoods where liquor stores outnumber fresh-food grocers. Why are there fewer fresh foods in these neighborhoods?

Lessons now will bear fruit in future

user@domain.com — 2009-03-30T21:52:35-07:00

by Debbie Arrington

This rap came with shovels:

Plant the trees, reap the fruit. You're the future. You're the youth.

Rolling around the state in mural-coated buses powered by recycled vegetable oil, the Fruit Tree Tour hit Sacramento this week, using music, art and sweat to teach kids about ecology.

Digging along to a hip-hop beat, hundreds of local students got a firsthand lesson in sustainability. Years from now, this short course will produce food for families as well as a memorable lesson in connectivity.

We all need food; the Earth's got plenty. Look around, look around.

Dressed in colorful and imaginative costumes, the tour's 25 volunteers led students at Aero Haven School in North Highlands in song and dance Wednesday before planting dozens of fruit trees on campus. Their musical message proved catchy:

Working together, we make the future better. Working together, we make the future better.

On Tuesday, about 150 students from Cordova and Grant high schools and Mitchell Middle School pitched in to plant more than 30 fruit trees at Soil Born Farm's River Ranch in Rancho Cordova as the tour's drummers beat out an infectious rhythm for the workers.

"We're creating a food forest," explained Sara Smith-Rubio of Soil Born. "This is an educational experience that will be harvested for years."

The Sacramento Tree Foundation donated these local fruit trees, an assortment of citrus, plums, pears, peaches, apples, cherries and other favorites. In about three years, these same students may help harvest this fruit.

Creating such connections has been an integral part of this traveling road show, started six years ago by the nonprofit group Common Vision.

From February to April this year, the tour will perform before an estimated 15,000 students while planting about 1,000 trees from San Diego to Sacramento.

Since its start, the Fruit Tree Tour has planted about 3,600 trees statewide, said Michael Flynn, who has been part of the all- volunteer staff since its inception.

"Part of our program is to provide fresh fruit throughout the school year," Flynn explained. "Persimmons and figs will be harvested in the fall, followed by apples and pears. In the winter, there are oranges, tangerines, grapefruits, lemons and kumquats. In the late spring, there will be cherries, early peaches and nectarines and loquats."

But this tour is about more than providing alternative school snacks.

"Through planting fruit trees, we're teaching kids about the Earth and their relationship to it," Flynn said. "By integrating arts – theater, eco-hip-hop, drumming – into environmental action, students get excited.

"Trees make them think about the future," he added. "The reward isn't immediate. They'll help take care of these trees they've planted. Over the years, they'll learn more as the trees grow and bear fruit. They'll see how working together, their actions make a difference. The impact on students is really profound."

Getting kids into gardening and providing locally grown food for families who might not otherwise have fresh produce are two trends catching on all over the nation.

From the White House to the state house, novice gardeners are digging in.

Examples of such agri- activism are sprouting coast to coast. With a bevy of students, first lady Michelle Obama started a vegetable garden on the White House's South Lawn. California first lady Maria Shriver plans to do the same in Sacramento with a Capitol-area vegetable garden to help teach students about food.

The Fruit Tree Tour is part of this growing trend.

"For many of these kids, this is a first-time experience," said Guy Galante, educational director for Soil Born.

About 60 students from Mitchell Middle School walked 2.7 miles from their classroom to be part of the event.

Teachers Natalie Marhauer and Ellen Burton watched their students make some initial stabs at the soil.

"The walk over was an experience, too," Marhauer said. "We don't get that many field trip opportunities, but this was close. Some kids that might not succeed in the classroom do really well here, outdoors, doing something different."

Added Burton, after watching the performers twirl around a 20-foot dancing redwood tree, "Some of them were a little dumbstruck by the music and all this. I feel like I'm at a Grateful Dead show."

Besides planting for the future, students painted 6-foot-high murals of their visions of tomorrow, including fantasy trees bearing the fruit of wisdom.

"By the time these students are in high school, they'll be able to come back here, see how much these fruit trees have grown," Marhauer said, "and appreciate what they've accomplished."

That's a great lesson at any age.

Evergreen 6 Academy gets a little greener

user@domain.com — 2009-03-31T21:50:30-07:00

by Paul Wellersdick

Beating drums and planting trees were part of the Evergreen Sixth Grade Academy school curriculum Monday afternoon as squad of modern-day Johnny Appleseeds taught about sustainability.

By traveling in a caravan of vegetable oil-powered vehicles, cooking their food in solar ovens and planting thousands of trees, the 25 volunteers of Common Vision taught students about sustainability. The group's sixth-annual tour performed puppet shows, drum circles and planted trees at its Paradise stop, Common Vision Education Director Michael Flynn said.

Trees and Eco-Knowledge Take Root at Anneliese

user@domain.com — 2009-03-27T21:48:24-07:00

The Common Vision Fruit Tree Tour recently made a stop at Anneliese School, transforming their schoolyard into a living classroom. The students were treated to a demonstration play, hands-on planting experience, and a participatory music activity before working in art groups to document some of their insights.

The goal of Common Vision is to engage students in dialogues about health, nutrient cycles, global climate change, tree biology, the importance of fresh food and becoming an agent of positive change.

Food for blogs an students

user@domain.com — 2009-03-17T21:47:00-07:00

by Joan Obra

Of course, there is life beyond the virtual world. Take an event such as Common Vision's visit to Fresno this week.

This environmentally minded nonprofit has embarked on its sixth annual Emmy Award-winning "Fruit Tree Tour" throughout California. Picture 25 idealistic volunteers traveling on brightly painted, vegetable-oil-powered buses. They stop in cities to plant fruit trees, play some instruments, and encourage everyone they meet to take care of the environment in their own communities.

"There's more to the environment than rain forests and polar bears," says Michael Flynn, Common Vision's director of education and program development.

Fruit Tree Tour plants Inland Empire

user@domain.com — 2009-03-16T21:45:55-07:00

by Gina Diamante

This year during a planting and performance in Southern California’s Inland Empire, Fruit Tree Tour was visited by our new friends at KVCR, the area’s National Public Radio affiliate. Give a listen to this great report that makes you feel like right you’re right here with us.

Fruit tree planters roll into OC — in veggie-powered buses

user@domain.com — 2009-03-13T21:43:44-07:00

by Pat Brennan

Here’s something you don’t see every day: a caravan of vegetable-oil buses, chugging into the school parking lot and filled with volunteers carrying life-sized puppets, shovels and a variety of fruit trees for planting right there in the school yard.

The 2009 Fruit Tree Tour is on the road again, bringing its message about the perils of climate change to school children around the state. It’s the sixth year of the tour, with two stops this week in Orange County.

“We’ve got the whole storyline explaining global warming,” said Michael Flynn, an organizer with the Bay Area group. “It’s a really fun way of getting kids engaged in their own communities. That’s the vision.”

Group brings environmental message to students in Nuevo

user@domain.com — 2009-03-12T21:42:27-07:00

by Erica Shen

Students at Nuview Elementary School in Nuevo learned how to take care of the planet from a time-traveling scientist and some life-size puppets Thursday.

The comedic characters were part of the Fruit Tree Tour, a group that travels across California to plant orchards at schools and teach children about the environment.

The group's visit began with an assembly packed with songs and skits about climate change and fossil fuels. Fifth-graders then rotated through drumming, creativity and tree-planting workshops. Students and volunteers planted 24 trees in the school's playground.

"It was a lot of fun," said Lesli Reynaga, 11. "I learned about giving life to trees."

Raw Inspirations Radio talks with Megan and Doug

user@domain.com — 2009-03-12T21:40:10-07:00

In this episode, we'll get the Fruit Tree Tour update from Megan Watson and Doug Fuller of Common Vision. Common Vision: Founded in 1999, Common Vision is a solution-focused nonprofit organization, a project of International Humanities Center. Common Vision’s mission is to cultivate ecological awareness and respect for the Earth while generating social and environmental changes towards sustainable lifestyles. We integrate concepts of ecology with the traditions, music, and art of cultures that live or have lived in harmony with the Earth.

A different kind of Victory Garden

user@domain.com — 2009-02-24T21:36:39-08:00

by Judy Lowe

It’s one of those “California” ideas. Instead of growing just vegetables in community gardens, why not include fruit, too?

That’s exactly what a group called the Fruit Tree Tour is doing — planting “Victory Orchards” in as many of the Golden State’s low-income communities as possible.

Over five years, the activists of Common Vision have donated several thousand fruit trees, trying to have several community plantings in each city they visit.

Free fruit, “eco hip hop,” and puppet shows

user@domain.com — 2009-02-19T21:35:18-08:00

Can’t afford the organic fruit at Whole Foods in this economy? If you’re a kid in California, Fruit Tree Tours‘ new victory orchards could give you a welcome break from the usual cafeteria food and help you get your 5-a-Day in the coming years.

Fruit Tree Tours is a project of Common Vision, an eco-nonprofit at whose party I had to give myself ad hoc dreadlocks to fit in. This year, Fruit Tree Tours includes more than 1,000 fruit trees, 75 drums, and 25 volunteers who will travel around California on a fleet of buses that run on 100% recycled veggie oil and have solar arrays on their rooftops.

Regular Broadcasts from the Road

user@domain.com — 2009-02-16T21:31:30-08:00

The Common Vision team has visited in hundreds of schools throughout the State of California in a fleet of Biodiesel buses teaching students how to plant fruit trees for the future. Collectively with the students Common Vision has planted enough fruit trees to yield around 250,000 pounds of fruit per year. With experiential learning, historic skits, hip hop performances, and drumming circles, the

Common Vision team makes a lasting impact on many who would otherwise never hear of these concepts and reminders of our relationship with each other and our home, the Earth. The Creed of the Iroquoi, "In our every deliberation we must consider the impact on the next 7 Generations" is planted into the hearts and minds of children with every tree they plant.

California Tour Planting The Future

user@domain.com — 2008-08-01T21:29:10-07:00

Have you heard of a group traveling California, Planting Fruit Trees in Public Schools and Communities? Sound like a fantasy world? No, it’s an amazing vision of Michael Flynn – Director of Education of Common Vision to give back to communities and students across California. A non-profit organization educating children and community leaders on how to unite neighborhoods through planting of fruit trees and education on managing and caring for them. A bold act for one group to do across a state. Common Vision now in their 5th year of Planting the Future with their Fruit Tree Tour is hoping to reach out to more communities every year. We can only hope more organizations and more volunteers get involved in this type of community giving. So readers, this is our interview with Michael Flynn of Common Vision.

Green LA

user@domain.com — 2008-04-01T21:22:44-07:00

Tour Turns Schoolyards Into Orchards

user@domain.com — 2008-04-09T21:18:24-07:00

Students at Bret Harte Elementary school in San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunter’s Point neighborhood recently got their hands a little dirty turning sections of their schoolyard into a small scale fruit orchard.

The school was a stop on the Common Vision Fruit Tree Tour, which has been making yearly trips the length of California putting on environmental education events at elementary schools. A group of 25+ volunteers walk school groups through their own fruit tree planting and involve them in a day’s worth of environment themed activities including West African drumming, theatre and hip-hop poetry.

Tree Tour Heads to Wood Middle School

user@domain.com — 2008-04-11T21:16:09-07:00

Fruit Tree Tour is rolling through California on its fifth annual tree-planting pilgrimage to California public schools. Participating schools from San Diego to Sacramento invite the popular program to engage students in making a positive on-the-ground change in their local and global communities through a full day of digging, drumming, dancing, eco-hip hop and green theater. The Fruit Tree Tour stopped at Wood Middle School yesterday to plant trees.

Off the matt

user@domain.com — 2008-04-01T21:14:35-07:00

This spring, Common Vision is in the midst of it’s fifth annual Fruit Tree Tour—a 20-city, 70-day tour planting over 1,000 fruit trees at urban schools and community centers from Los Angeles to Sacramento. Traveling in a caravan powered with veggie oil, 25-earth educators from Common Vision will teach students about sustainable ecology through daylong programs that includes theatre, drumming, dancing, storytelling, and earth-conscious hip-hop.

Nomadic educators carry earthy message

user@domain.com — 2008-04-01T21:11:59-07:00

by Roger Sideman

LA SELVA — Students beat on drums and planted trees as a caravan of earth-loving ecology educators rolled into Renaissance High School.

As part of a statewide fruit tree-planting tour, members of the nonprofit group Common Vision travel in three vegetable oil-powered buses, visiting 25 cities and planting 1,000 fruit trees in hopes of teaching urban students about sustainable ecology and the benefits of eating locally grown food.

Interview with Organic Mechanic Leo Buc

user@domain.com — 2008-03-01T21:08:35-08:00

Mo Mellady talks on-the-air with Fruit Tree Tour's onboard organic mechanic and homegrown hip hopper Leo Buc.

Environmental tour makes stop in SM

user@domain.com — 2008-03-14T21:06:54-07:00

by Natalie Ragus

Entertainers from the Common Vision environmental-education group perform Thursday for Taylor Elementary School students during a stop on the group's

Twenty-five “Earth Educators” descended upon Taylor Elementary School Thursday in their veggie-oil-powered caravan to help students plant fruit trees and dance to the “eco-beat.”

The “Earth educators” were from environmental education group Common Vision, and their visit to the Santa Maria school was a stop along the way in the group's annual Fruit Tree Tour, a 20-city tour to plant more than 1,000 fruit trees on urban campuses, while teaching children about sustainable ecology.

Choose Your Own Adventure

user@domain.com — 2008-03-01T21:05:34-08:00

For intrepid travelers able to commit to a three-month project, Common Vision offers a chance to road-trip up the gorgeous California coastline and back while helping kids turn their schoolyards into fruit orchards.

Twenty-five Fruit Tree Tour volunteers travel in a fleet of psychedelically painted, veggie oil-powered school buses, stopping at pre-scheduled schools (largely in underserved urban areas) to teach students the entire process of planting — how to shovel, pick and plant ten to 50 trees. Volunteers introduce topics most of the children have never heard of before — nutrient cycles, soil microlife, the importance of fresh food, tree biology and drumming.

Interview with Megan Watson

user@domain.com — 2007-03-06T21:01:05-08:00

Megan Watson speaks with Maria Sanchez on her Ventura County morning show.

Fruit Tree Tour plants roots at Watsonville's New School outdoor program

user@domain.com — 2007-03-23T20:59:57-07:00

by Joanne Sanchez

The world's largest veggie-oil-powered caravan covered in forest-scape murals and carrying 1,000 fruit trees and 27 volunteers rolled into Watsonville on Thursday as part of its annual 20-city, 70-day tour to urban schools from San Diego to Sacramento.

In a one-of-a-kind daylong interactive outdoor program that includes West African agricultural drumming and ecoconscious hip-hop, Common Vision's Fruit Tree Tour taught students at New School how to turn barren school yards into abundant orchards, creating living classrooms with the potential to produce enough fresh fruit for the school's cafeteria and community.

School tour bears fruit

user@domain.com — 2007-03-22T20:55:36-07:00

by Victor Calderón

Environmental group brings trees for students to plant on campuses

To beating of drums, students at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Salinas on Wednesday welcomed some green additions to their school garden.

As first reported in TheCalifornian.com, the California Fruit Tree Tour - a caravan of volunteers in colorful vegetable-oil-powered vehicles who use fruit trees and environmental lessons to transform urban schoolyards across the state each year - was in its second day of helping spruce up Salinas schools.

Students at the Alisal Union School District site helped each other plant 15 trees and took part in West African drumming lessons and Earth-conscious hip-hop singing.

Fruit and Concrete: What a Mix!

user@domain.com — 2007-02-23T20:50:11-08:00

by Kenny Luna

Actually, I think it’s quite a bright idea considering the fact that this years Fruit Tree Tour will feature the world's largest veggie-oil powered caravan, covered in forest-scape murals and carrying 1000 fruit trees and 27 volunteers along its annual 20-city, 70-day tour to inner city schools from San Diego to Sacramento. It’s certainly a one-of-a-kind idea featuring a day-long interactive outdoor program that includes West African agricultural drumming and eco-conscious hip-hop to help reach kids with the concept of sustainability. Ultimately, Common Vision's Fruit Tree Tour aims to educate inner city students about how easy it can be to turn barren school yards into abundant orchards; and in the process create living, outdoor classrooms with the potential to produce enough fresh fruit for their school's cafeteria and possibly even members of the community.

Children learn through growing trees

user@domain.com — 2007-02-22T20:48:21-08:00

by Cana Tasci

Trees are helping the students grow at John L. Golden Elementary School in Cucamonga. On Feb. 15, Common Vision, a group dedicated to teaching children about the importance of a natural system on the Earth, visited the campus. They came in a veggie-powered caravan, bringing music, dancing, gardening and agricultural awareness to the young group.

"By allowing the children the hands-on experience of planting a fruit tree in their local school yard, they will not only, during the planting, feel the experience of connecting to the Earth, but over the next one, two, five years, they have the opportunity to care for that tree and watch it bear fruits and see how their efforts make a huge difference," said Michael Flynn, director of education for Common Vision.

Students get lesson on ‘interconnectedness’

user@domain.com — 2006-03-22T20:43:37-08:00

by Laura Norton

The words were big but the tasks were small and by the end of the day the drumming, tree planting and corn growing gave students at Watsonville Charter School for the Arts an idea of what interconnectedness was all about.

“They really love the drums,” said Leo Buc, drumming teacher and mechanic with Common Vision’s Fruit Tree Tour. “We’re able to use that to teach social lessons like unity and diversity through doing a heartbeat rhythm. It gets the kids thinking globally because all over the word is the heartbeat.”

Veggie-powered bus makes pit stop in Watsonville

user@domain.com — 2006-03-22T20:41:25-08:00

The so-called "largest veggie-powered caravan in the world" was in Watsonville on Tuesday dazzling kids with their colorful environmental message.

This is the third year of Common Vision's annual Fruit Tree Tour, which has traveled from San Diego to Sacramento planting more than 1,500 fruit trees with the students of inner-city schools.

Tree-planting tour travels state

user@domain.com — 2006-03-15T20:24:04-08:00

by Rob Kuznia

Goleta Family School got a visit Tuesday from Common Vision's Fruit Tree Tour, a group that travels around the state spreading a message of environmentalism by planting trees. The event also gave students a chance to try their hand at African drumming. The group's Leo Buc, below, leads the students in a song from Africa.

Transforming Concrete Jungles into Urban Orchards

user@domain.com — 2006-03-07T19:39:49-08:00

by Jacob Gordon

They call themselves the largest veggie-powered caravan in the world, and they’re traversing California teaching school kids that the city is alive. This summer marks the third year of Common Vision’s annual Fruit Tree Tour, which has traveled from San Diego to Sacramento planting over 1,500 fruit trees with the students of inner-city schools. Through a fusion of arts, culture, and ecology, the non-profit aims at awakening youth not only to ecology, but to its cultural and communal roots. From planting heirloom varieties of corn from indigenous Mexican farmers, to playing West African agricultural rhythms, to contemporary hip hop media, Common Vision strives to make ecological awareness relevant and inspirational.

In tune with nature

user@domain.com — 2006-03-01T19:38:31-08:00

by Eliza Thomas

“We visit schools to try to get students in touch with what’s under all this concrete,” says Blair Philips, creator of the Fruit Tree Tour, a six vehicle, veggie oil-powered caravan currently spreading the gospel of sustainability in a city near you.

In February, the nomadic tribe of 30 volunteer eco-educators made pit stops around the Southland, planting school yards with fruit trees and indigenous corn, and engaging students in conversations around key ecological and cultural concepts like nutrient cycles, interconnectedness, diversity and respect. This month they’re headed up to Ojai, Santa Barbara and San Louis Obispo, their eco-party on wheels in tow.

Growing an Education

user@domain.com — 2006-02-22T19:37:31-08:00

by Caroline An

Students get an education in ecology by planting fruit trees

CLAREMONT - Take some fruit trees, add in rhythmic drum beats and groups of enthusiastic students, and you have a typical Fruit Tree Tour experience.

In its third year, the Fruit Tree Tour is a program sponsored by Common Vision, a nonprofit organization that focuses on ecological awareness. The Fruit Tree Tour is one of its major programs 30 volunteers spend three months on the road in buses and plant 1,000 fruit trees with students throughout the state.

"The tour has grown every year," said Blair Phillips, founder of Common Vision. "The first year, we visited five schools and planted 50 trees in Santa Cruz County."

Nearly 10,000 students have helped plant 1,500 trees in cities across the state.

Heartbeat of the EARTH

user@domain.com — 2005-03-21T19:35:38-08:00

Positive, positive energy...Plantin' trees all across the nation...Keep on plantin' fruit trees Add a thundering rap beat supported by five Conga drummers, three of them with dreadlocks, and you have some idea what greeted students in the courtyard at Willits High School on April 20.

Despite an attempt to remain cool, nearly all of about 100 students began smiling and several couldn't resist the urge to sway with the beat. When the group finished, the students broke into loud applause. A few added high pitched yips of approval.

"Lovin' it!" called out one enthusiastic young man.

Community garden off to a green start

user@domain.com — 2005-04-01T19:34:06-08:00

by Chris Gullick

Cynthia Wright's vision is bearing fruit.

Fruit trees were planted - 50 of them - with the help of a traveling group of environmental advocates and students from Blue Oak Charter School, to initiate the new Chico Community Environmental Garden.

The two-acre garden sits on Silver Dollar Way, across the street from the looming Costco building and beside the California Water Co. office, in some ways an odd spot for a garden.

But Thursday the work started, the beginnings of a community resource to teach and benefit people who may not have access to healthy foods or a place to grow foods themselves.

Fruit Tree Tour takes root in county

user@domain.com — 2005-03-07T19:31:20-08:00

by Sarah Vickers

Two biodiesel-fueled buses, part of the second annual Fruit Tree Tour, will roll into Santa Cruz County in March, carrying educators, performers and soil.

Common Vision, organizers of the event, aims to disperse information and training to urban youth through education and tree-planting sessions across California.

"So often environmental ideas like "conservation" can seem removed to urban youth," said Michael Flynn, Common Vision education director. "Students often only once or twice get a chance to see environments develop."

So why Santa Cruz County?

Eco-minded school now has orchard

user@domain.com — 2005-03-11T19:29:49-08:00

by Rob Kuznia

With the help of a traveling nonprofit organization that promotes sustainable living, students at Monte Vista School on Thursday turned a large lawn area into an orchard with 20-plus trees.

Because of its reputation for garden-based projects, the elementary school in the Hope School District was among 45 schools selected by Common Vision to receive several trees and a visit from about 20 volunteers with the nonprofit group.

Vegan vehicles carry earthy message

user@domain.com — 2005-03-19T19:28:02-08:00

by Joanne Sanchez

One of their buses broke down in San Luis Obispo. But the second bus, hand-painted with the colors of the rainbow, kept on going.

Friday morning, 20 members of environmental-education group Common Vision, packed into the colorful school bus that doubles as their home, arrived in Watsonville bearing fruit trees and drums to spread their word about sustainable living.

Fruit Tree Tour visits Long Beach

user@domain.com — 2005-03-09T19:25:35-08:00

by Matt Logan

Transform a concrete jungle into a fruit tree sanctuary with some eclectic drum beats as a catalyst and you've got the Fruit Tree Tour.

There are many places in the cities of America where kids have little to no vegetation and definitely not many fruit trees. The non-profit organization Common Vision was created to help "cultivate ecological awareness and respect for the Earth while generating social and environmental changes towards sustainable lifestyles," as explained in their mission statement.

On March 2, the Fruit Tree Tour was here in Long Beach visiting The New City School. Traveling north into Los Angeles to finish the week they visited Normandie Avenue Elementary School on Friday. During the event they were able to work with students to plant 75 trees and involved approximately 1,600 kids. "The drums make the kids go nuts," said Common Vision volunteer Michael Flynn, "Even teachers where coming out and shaking their booties!"

School district says no to fruit trees

user@domain.com — 2005-02-23T19:19:38-08:00

by Maureen Magee

Visiting ecology group plants for shade instead

Johnny Appleseed apparently can't be trusted in San Diego.

A caravan of earth-loving ecology educators launched a statewide fruit tree-planting tour at Clark Middle School in City Heights yesterday.

Traveling in 30-year-old school buses that have been hand- painted and run on vegetable oil, the environmentalists will visit 20 cities and plant 1,000 fruit trees in hopes of teaching urban students about sustainable ecology and the benefits of eating locally grown food.

But San Diego students will get shade instead of fruit.

Biodiesel becomes fuel for thought

user@domain.com — 2002-04-08T19:01:04-07:00

by Sarah Anchors

Abraham Powell says the exhaust from his car smells like Mongolian barbecue, and some of his friends claim to scent the air with the smell of french fries as they drive by.

They can accurately claim that their vehicles smell as sweet because they run their diesel engines on recycled vegetable oil, taken from doughnut shops, greasy spoons, Chinese restaurants and the like.

"It smells a lot better," he said.

Eat your veggies, but save the salad oil -- for your ride's fuel tank

user@domain.com — 2002-06-01T20:05:47-07:00

Michael Flynn and his pals at Common Vision, a California non-profit, don't want to ever visit another gas pump. They collect used vegetable oil from restaurants, mix it with chemicals, pour it into their 1961 Crown school bus, and, presto -- it works. For five months, they've driven around the West Coast in the bus, fueled by biodiesel.