Fruit Tree Tour, the Emmy Award-winning urban eco-education program, has set out on its sixth annual pilgrimage to plant Victory Orchards and perform Green Theater in California communities reeling from the recession.

» Watch trailer for Emmy Award-winning show

Decked out with rooftop solar arrays and converted to run on 100% recycled vegetable oil, Fruit Tree Tour's fleet of bio-powered busses—the largest known caravan of its kind—carries over 1000 bare root fruit trees, 75 drums, and an all-volunteer army of 25 modern-day Johnny Appleseeds.

The tour will plant and perform at public schools and community centers in Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Riverside, Fresno, Sacramento, Chico, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

» Click here for complete tour schedule

Fruit Tree Tour's Green Theater uses larger-than-life puppets in a time-traveling tale that explains climate change to kids and teaches them the simple science behind breaking the cycle of fossil fuel addiction.

The popular tree-planting program primarily visits under-served, low-income neighborhoods where liquor stores outnumber fresh food grocers and a disproportionate number of students rely on state-funded meal programs to meet their basic nutritional needs.

For three full months, the cramped caravan serves as both home and office for a committed crew of arborists and educators who are fed by donations from local organic farms and markets along the way.

Since first setting out six years ago, Fruit Tree Tour has planted thousands of fruit trees with tens of thousands of low-income students from Sacramento to San Diego.

Fans can follow Fruit Tree Tour on Facebook and Twitter.com/FruitTreeTour, and PayPal donations to 2009@FruitTreeTour.org.

For more information, please visit CommonVision.org