“I love loquats!” said 14-year-old Aadit Mehta, who has a loquat tree in his Santa Clara front yard. “They are very sweet, juicy, and so fresh, picked directly from the tree. That’s really the only way to eat them!”
Mehta, an 8th grader at Queen of Apostles School in San Jose, turned an overabundance of a fruit he loves into a fundraiser for the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ) of Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose.
During last year’s late spring loquat season, a neighbor knocked on his family’s front door, asking to buy their loquats—an apricot-sized, yellow-orange stone fruit native to China. The idea came to Mehta that the fruit could be sold to raise funds for a cause—the NICU of the hospital where he was born prematurely and spent the first three months of his life.
“With the arrival of our son, Aadit, much earlier than expected and so small, the strangers who were in the NICU became heroes for our family. Three months of uncertainty. Three months of relying on this group of people,” said Mehta’s parents, Rakesh and Monica Mehta.
Mehta, who wants a career in technology and AI, built a website—Loquat4Humanity.com—to organize his fundraiser, now beginning its second year.
“When I thought of the idea for Loquat4Humanity, my parents helped me turn a thought into a reality,” said Mehta. “They’ve always shown me what hard work and determination can do for you and are one of my biggest supporters in everything I do.”
His older sister, Samaira Mehta, backed him up as well.
“She always says there’s no such thing as a bad idea. You should just dream big and work hard. I’m really lucky to have her as my sister,” said Mehta, who will enter Wilcox High School in Santa Clara in the fall.
“I’m a pretty chill guy who loves trying new things and experiences,” said Mehta, who is taking flying lessons. “I just love exploring new things that life has to offer.”
In 2025, the first year of Loquat4Humanity, friends and neighbors picked over 61 pounds of loquats and donated $497 to support NICU babies and families. The goal for 2026 is $1,000.
“How could we ever tell our kids that life is a precious gift that is meant to be shared?” said Rakesh Mehta. “The most inspiring thing is that, in all the projects Aadit takes on, [like] Loquat4Humanity, there is always the same meaning running behind them: how can this benefit others?”
“This is about how a neighborhood, a family, and a backyard can hold more power than we ever imagined,” said Mehta’s sister.
Visit Mehta’s website https://loquat4humanity.vercel.app/ to sign up for a date and time to pick loquats from the family tree. A suggested donation is $8/pound.
If you have a fruit tree in your yard, you can sign up for help in starting your own fundraiser for the Good Samaritan Hospital NICU—or another cause.
“This fundraiser is so unique, and I love being the founder of it. I built everything from scratch, the idea, the website, all of it. And now it’s growing!” said Mehta.
“I love growing Loquat4Humanity so that anyone with a fruit tree can help contribute and give back to what they care about.”
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