York grad Laura Reinsborough will be honoured by the Yves Rocher Foundation – Institut de France, today, as a winner of a 2011 Canadian Women of the Earth Award. The second-prize award, worth 3,000 Euros (about $4,100), is one of three being given at a ceremony in Toronto to women who are committed to preserving the environment.
Left: Laura Reinsborough
The Yves Rocher Foundation supports local and global nature-preservation, solidarity and environmental education initiatives around the world.
Reinsborough (BES Spec. Hons. ’05, MES ’08) was recognized for her work as founder and director of Not Far From The Tree, an organization that coordinates a residential fruit-picking program in Toronto to ensure that the produce growing on urban fruit trees is not wasted, but rather picked, shared, eaten and enjoyed (see YorkU magazine Oct. 2010).
Since it was created in 2008, the organization has picked more than 13,986 kilos of fruit that would otherwise have gone to waste. Of this figure, close to 4,600 kilos were distributed to food banks or social services organizations and the rest was shared among the tree owners and the more than 700 volunteers. The program helps raise awareness of the importance of healthy eating, sustainable transportation and local produce.
The Yves Rocher Foundation – Institute de France was an initiative of Jacques Rocher, son of French businessman Yves Rocher, a pioneer in the modern use of natural ingredients in cosmetics. The awards program runs in 15 countries across Europe, North America and North Africa.