Millions of U.S. apples were almost left to rot. Now, they'll go to hungry families

Guadalupe Zarate harvests trees for Kitchen's Orchard in Hedgesville, West Virginia. He can pick a bushel, more than forty apples, per minute. (Alan Jinich)

It's getting late in the harvest season in Berkeley County, West Virginia and Carla Kitchen's team is in the process of hand-picking nearly half a million pounds of apples. In a normal year, Kitchen would sell to processors like Andros that make applesauce, concentrate, and other products. But this year they turned her away.

"Imagine 80% of your income is sitting on the trees and the processor tells you they don't want them," Kitchen says. "You've got your employees to worry about. You've got fruit on the trees that need somewhere to go. What do you do?"