Buffalo Council Denies Community Orchard Proposal

A second presentation from board members of the Bread of Life Food Pantry concerning a community orchard they want to put on city property was given at this week’s Buffalo City Council meeting.

Kelly Norris and DJ Puente, representing the food pantry, gave an update to the council with more information than what they presented to the council in an earlier meeting to ask for city approval to install fruit trees on city property for the community to use and benefit from.

According to the earlier presentation, the area where the food pantry wants to put the orchard is on city property at the corner of West Fetterman and South DeSmet, adjacent to the Child Development Center.

The food pantry would purchase materials, plant the trees, perform maintenance on the trees, while the city would agree to install a water line from the street, the use of the area and continue to perform routine maintenance on the site as they do now.

Council members voiced concerns about the longevity of the food pantry’s commitment to the project and problems the city might inherit in the future, should the food pantry lose interest in the orchard.

Councilman Dan Hart had some of the same concerns at this week’s meeting as well.

No vote by the council was taken, but each member said they were not comfortable with the city taking on the responsibility for a number of reasons.