--- title: Fallen From the Tree | Experience & Commercial Strategy description: An Experience & Commercial Strategy case study exploring food waste, community participation and what happens when a strong pilot lacks the funding, capacity or route to scale. --- ![FALLEN FROM THE TREE Experience & Commercial Strategy Studio](https://gemmaheath.com/hubfs/FALLEN%20FROM%20THE%20TREE%20%20Experience%20%26%20Commercial%20Strategy%20Studio.png "FALLEN FROM THE TREE Experience & Commercial Strategy Studio") # Fallen From the Tree | Project Type: | Community /  Social Impact | | --- | --- | | Organisation: | Collective Skills Project CIC | | Role: | Co-Founder · Concept Development · Community Activation · Pilot Delivery | | Period: | Piloted, not scaled |   ## What happens to a strong idea when the organisation doesn’t have the capacity, funding or route to scale it? Fallen From the Tree started with something incredibly ordinary. Apples and pears were falling from trees across the city. In parks. Along roads. In public spaces. In people’s gardens. And a huge amount of perfectly usable fruit was simply being left on the ground to rot. The opportunity felt obvious: Could we help people notice, understand and use what was already growing around them? ## Start with what is already there The first version of the project was very simple. We went out to local public spaces, collected fallen and available fruit and brought it back into the community. The fruit was then given away for free from market stalls. The aim was not only redistribution. It was education. We wanted people to understand: - what fruit was growing locally - that much of it was edible - how and when it could be picked - how it could be cleaned and used - that food did not always have to come packaged from a supermarket It was a small intervention, but it changed the way people looked at something they had previously walked past. ## Then the project moved into people’s gardens We quickly realised the same problem existed on private property. People with mature apple trees often produced far more fruit than one household could realistically eat. So we began visiting people’s homes and helping harvest the surplus. The fruit could then be redistributed through community stalls rather than going to waste. That created another layer to the idea. This was no longer just about public fruit trees. It was about building a network of surplus. Over time, we started collecting information about where fruit trees existed across the city, both in public spaces and in private gardens where residents were happy to participate. That began to form the basis of something much bigger. ## From fruit picking to a city-wide system The longer we worked on the idea, the more possibilities appeared. Could we create a community fruit map? Could local residents see where edible fruit was growing? Could we organise seasonal picking days? Could volunteers be shown how to harvest safely? Could recipe cards help people turn surplus fruit into crumbles, jams or other simple food? Could schools use the project to teach children about food, waste, seasonality and local environments? Could the council use it as part of a wider sustainability or community programme? Could surplus fruit even become a local product, perhaps something like a Staffordshire cider? The concept was beginning to move from: **fruit rescue** to: **education + participation + mapping + community + waste reduction + local identity.** ## The pilots worked. The system never got built. We tested the core behaviour. We collected fruit. We redistributed it. We worked with residents. We started building knowledge about where the trees were. We explored volunteer picking days. We could see the potential. But the project never reached the scale it could have. The challenge was not the idea itself. It was everything needed around the idea. Time. Funding. Coordination. Volunteer capacity. Council involvement. Data management. Seasonal planning. Long-term ownership. The project needed an organisation with the infrastructure to carry it beyond the pilot stage. We didn’t have that infrastructure. And eventually, the project stopped. ## The one that got away Looking back, Fallen From the Tree is one of the projects I still think had significantly more potential than we were able to realise. The pilot showed enough to prove that the basic idea was workable. But proving an idea and scaling an idea are two different things. That is the lesson I now find most interesting. > ## A strong concept is not enough. It also needsan owner, a delivery model, funding, partnerships, capacity, data and a route to scale. Without those things, even a good idea can remain small. ## What it could have become Today, I would see Fallen From the Tree less as a standalone community project and more as a programme that could have been adopted or supported by organisations already equipped to scale it. For example: - local authorities - schools - environmental programmes - food-waste initiatives - community organisations - public-health teams - parks departments - sustainability partnerships The core format could have included: **City Fruit Map** A live map showing publicly accessible fruit trees and participating private gardens. **Seasonal Picking Days** Guided community events teaching people how to harvest safely. **Schools Programme** Learning around food waste, nature, seasonality and local food systems. **Recipe & Skills Resources** Simple ways to use surplus fruit at home. **Community Redistribution** Market stalls or local hubs where surplus could be shared. **Local Products** Exploring whether excess supply could support small-batch products with a local identity. The ingredients were already there. The missing piece was the system around them. ## What this work demonstrates **Opportunity Spotting** Seeing value in something most people were simply walking past. **Community Insight** Recognising that waste, education and participation could be addressed through one simple intervention. **Pilot Development** Moving quickly from idea into real-world testing. **Sustainability Thinking** Reducing food waste by redistributing and reusing existing local resources. **Participation Design** Creating ways for residents to contribute surplus, collect fruit and potentially volunteer. **Data & Mapping Thinking** Beginning to build a picture of where fruit trees existed across the city. **Partnership Potential** Identifying how councils, schools and other organisations could expand the idea. **Systems Thinking** Understanding that the long-term opportunity sat beyond the individual activation and inside the wider network required to sustain it. ## The lesson I carry forward **We proved the experience. We hadn’t yet built the system around it.** Fallen From the Tree taught me that a strong idea can still stall if there is no clear route into the organisation capable of sustaining it. Today, I would ask much earlier: **Who needs to own this? Who has the infrastructure? How is it funded? What evidence does that partner need? And what has to exist for the pilot to become a programme?** Sometimes the most useful thing you learn from a project is not simply whether the idea worked. It is understanding **what the idea needed next.** ### Interested in Working Together? ![ACE - Logo (400 x 400 px) (400 x 250 px) (2)](https://gemmaheath.com/hubfs/ACE%20-%20Logo%20(400%20x%20400%20px)%20(400%20x%20250%20px)%20(2).png "ACE - Logo (400 x 400 px) (400 x 250 px) (2)") - [Home](https://gemmaheath.com?hsLang=en) - [Experience & Commercial Strategy Studio](https://gemmaheath.com/experience-commercial-strategy-studio?hsLang=en) - [About](https://gemmaheath.com/about?hsLang=en) © 2026. 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