Our Story
The Giving Grove began in 2013 as a grassroots effort to make free, fresh fruits, nuts, and berries available to Kansas City neighborhoods with high rates of food insecurity. The program was launched with the understanding that an orchard must be community-led and community-driven. At the neighborhood’s request, The Giving Grove helps provide the trees, supplies, and training necessary to grow a fruitful orchard.
Within a few years, The Giving Grove helped install more than 100 orchards in neighborhoods throughout Kansas City that have faced decades of environmental and health inequities, creating beautiful community spaces that each produce hundreds of pounds of free, fresh produce for the neighborhood. After finding success with The Giving Grove program in Kansas City, its founders began expanding the program across the nation in 2019.
Today, more than 500 of these little orchards, managed and maintained by more than 950 volunteer orchard stewards, are in fourteen cities across the U.S, with dozens of new orchards added each year. These neighborhood orchards have thousands of fruit trees that will:
Produce more than 64.5 million servings of free, healthy food over their lifetimes (which can be up to 50 years or more)
Sequester 1,000 tons of carbon
Absorb about 177,632 gallons of water per storm, reducing urban flooding and soil erosion
Lower urban air temperatures during the summer, reducing risks of heat-related illness
Improve soil biology through holistic orcharding techniques that avoid artificial pesticides and fertilizers, which is healthier for the earth and the people eating the fruit.
Thanks to our volunteer orchard stewards, this “little orcharding idea” has created a BIG impact across the nation and its still growing!
Our Staff
Ashley Williamson, MSW, Co-Executive Director
Ashley brings local and international experience in program development, community engagement, and research. She has a Master in Social Work Advocacy, Policy and Administration from the University of Kansas and is passionate about connecting people, ideas and policies. A dedicated Kansas City community member, Ashley is continuously involved in boards and leadership programs, currently serving as Secretary of Unified Government of Wyandotte Board of Parks Commission, Board Member of Community Capital Fund, Advisory Board Member for the Pride Fund Committee of Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and Advisory Committee Member for the Kansas City Young Farmers Coalition. Ashley is always looking forward to a good podcast, book, or the next time she can work in her ever-expanding vegetable garden.
Erica Kratofil, MSW, Co-Executive Director
A social worker with 15 years’ experience in nonprofit fundraising and administration, Erica brings a background in food security, housing and homelessness, and education to The Giving Grove. She is passionate about community engagement and enjoys volunteering with her family. Erica is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has a Master in Social Work and Nonprofit Management from Washington University in St. Louis. She is a Board Member for The For Elysa Foundation and has served as a social work field instructor for the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Amy Mullinax Drouin, MPA, Director of Philanthropy
Supporting individuals and communities in need has been a common thread throughout Amy’s 20+ year fundraising career. Plus, growing up with a Master Gardener mother, which resulted in an unavoidable passion and respect for nature, Amy has found her home at The Giving Grove. Amy received her master’s degree in public administration with an emphasis in nonprofit administration from the University of Missouri – Kansas City, and her children make sure lifelong learning continues.
Sarah Sikich, MA, Marketing & Communications Manager
Sarah joins us after spending the previous ten years running her own freelance design and communications business and enjoys being able to combine her professional experience with one of her dearest hobbies, gardening. As a volunteer at the first Giving Grove little orchard, she has experienced firsthand the importance of a little orchard in an urban area and felt drawn to help further spread Giving Grove’s mission. She is a graduate of Drury University and has a Master in Integrated Communications. Sarah spends her free time volunteering at her children’s school, reading under trees, taking family bike rides, and planning her next urban vegetable garden.
Matt Bunch, Horticulturist
Matt’s love for plants and gardening grew from the gardens of his parents and grandparents. Schooled as a history major, Matt has worked in the horticulture profession since 1994 in retail, municipal, and public garden capacities. From 2004 to 2013, Matt was with Powell Gardens (Kansas City’s Botanical Garden), first as a Native Plant Landscape Specialist, then as the Horticulturist for the 12-acre Heartland Harvest Garden edible landscape. Matt continues to garden at home with his family, is always in search of the next champion tree, and by informal count, has planted close to 10,000 trees. Matt has been with The Giving Grove since 2013.
Our Board of Directors
Oscar Tshibanda - Trustee
Founder and Managing Partner of Tshibanda Associates LLC
W. Todd Moore- Trustee
Founder of Heartland Regional Health Equity Conference
Ray Makalous (Emeritus), Giving Grove Founder
Retired banking executive
Greg Finkle – Chairman, Giving Grove Founder
President & co-founder of Finkle+Williams
Jill Quigley - Trustee at Large
Retired clinical nurse
Kevin Birzer – Treasurer, Giving Grove Founder
CEO & co-founder TortoiseEcofin
Gordon Braun – Secretary
Managing director at Protiviti
Kate Conner – Affiliate Representative
Executive Director, Food Well Alliance
Annual Report & Finances
While operating as a program of the Kansas City Community Gardens:
Our Affiliates
Giving Grove, Inc. is an action-aligned network of orcharding programs embedded across the country. There is POWER in organizing without creating new organizations, and connecting existing programs with a shared narrative for change. Read More…
The Giving Grove In The News!
For older news articles, click here.
Giving Grove Press Kit
Funding Partners Include:
Mariner Wealth Advisors
The McDonnell Foundation
Shumaker Family Foundation
Tortoise EcoFin
USDA Forestry Service
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
WellStocked Fund – Blue Cross Blue Shield of KC
Wildwood Philanthropy
Cornell Douglas Foundation
Corvin Family Fund
DeBruce Foundation
Edward F. Swinney Trust, Bank of America, Trustee
Gattermeir Family Foundation
GEHA
HydroFlask Parks for All Program
Jack & Glenna Wylie Fund
Makalous Family Foundation