Our Approach
The Giving Grove program approach is based on six key tenets:
Neighborhood Leadership: Our orchards ignite the power of the neighborhood.
Stewardship: Residents lead their neighbors in planting, maintaining and harvesting.
Curbside Access: Healthy food grows directly in the neighborhoods where it is needed most.
Increase Green Space: Vacant lots become places for neighborhood gatherings, play, art, and more
Holistic Best Practices: Stewards use selected varieties, beneficial insects, and probiotics to mimic nature.
A Resource Network: Our affiliates share resources, experience and expertise.
Here’s how it works:
Interest: A neighborhood or community leader contacts the local Giving Grove program manager to express interest in planting an orchard for their community.
Design: The program manager works with the community leader to determine the feasibility of an orchard based on soil conditions and water access. If growing an orchard is feasible, the program manager and community leader work together to design and plan an orchard that will serve its community best.
Planning: While the orchard design process is underway, the program manager supports the community leader in identifying volunteers. A discussion of funding and financial support for the site takes place at this time.
Planting: During the right season for the region, planting will begin and so will training! Depending on the size of the orchard and the number of volunteers, most orchards can be planted in half a day. At that point, the steward team receives the Giving Grove New Steward Handbook, which provides detailed instructions and information for maintaining their urban orchard.
Learning: The steward team enrolls in training courses. The Giving Grove, Inc and the local program manager offer numerous training opportunities throughout the year on subjects such as pest management, summer and winter pruning, beneficial insects, community engagement, and more. These courses are provided to the steward team for free and they may attend as many and as often as they need.
Ongoing Support: Following the planting of the orchard, the local Giving Grove program manager offers lifetime support to the orchard. The program manager can visit the orchard yearly to offer suggestions and feedback, but the orchard is the community’s to maintain as they please!
Harvest For Years: After allowing the trees to establish a strong root structure the first two years after planting, an orchard team can expect its first harvest in year 3 and can expect full production in year 8!
Our Affiliates
The Giving Grove National Network 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. Each of the below organizations has a local Giving Grove program.
Atlanta- Food Well Alliance
Location: Atlanta Area
Mission: Food Well Alliance is a collaborative network of local leaders working together to build thriving community gardens and urban farms across metro Atlanta. Our mission is to provide resources and support to local growers to connect and build healthier communities.
Metrics: 46 orchards, 632 trees, 3.2M lifetime pounds, 9.6M lifetime servings
Auburn- ReTreeUs
Location: Maine & nearby states
Mission: ReTreeUS promotes an environmentally sustainable, socially just food system through education and mentorship. By planting orchards in schools, in schools and provide educational programs that empower people to grow their own food and be healthy environmental stewards.
Metrics: Planting will begin spring 2023.
Cincinnati- The Common Orchard, incubated by The Green Umbrella
Location: Cincinnati Area
Mission: The Common Orchard Project works to install and maintain hundreds of small orchard plantings across Greater Cincinnati and grows “commonly held” resources by educating communities on fresh food and urban land management. These common orchards provide increased food access, tree canopy, walkable greenspace, and community building in neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment. Founded in 2017 and adopted by Green Umbrella in 2021 as an incubator project, the effort has planted 10 orchards across Cincinnati and three in Cleveland, with plans to install 50 more by 2024.
Metrics: 24 orchards, 349 trees, 1.2M lifetime pounds, 3.7M lifetime servings
Dallas- Grow North Texas
Location: Dallas Area
Mission: GROW North Texas strives to connect North Texans to food, farms, and community to create a sustainable, secure regional food system that enriches the land, encourages economic opportunity through food and agriculture, and provides equitable access to healthy, nutritious food for all residents.
Metrics: 24 orchards, 341 trees, 1M lifetime pounds, 3.5M lifetime servings
Denver- Denver Urban Gardens
Location: Denver Area
Mission: Denver Urban Gardens (DUG) provides the access, skills, and resources for people to grow healthy food in community and regenerate urban green spaces.
Metrics: 20 orchards, 535 trees, 1.4K lifetime pounds, 4.2M lifetime servings
Kansas City- Kansas City Community Gardens
Location: Kansas City Metropolitan Area
Mission: To empower and inspire low-income households, community groups, and schools in the Kansas City Metropolitan area to grow their own vegetables and fruit.
Metrics: 246 orchards, 4,277 trees, 22.3M lifetime pounds, 66.9M lifetime servings
Louisville- Louisville Grows
Location: Louisville Area
Mission: We seek to foster green, just and sustainable neighborhoods throughout Louisville by using urban forestry and agriculture to advocate for health equity.
Metrics: 2 orchards, 39 trees, 178K lifetime pounds, 535K lifetime servings
Pittsburgh- Tree Pittsburgh
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Mission: Tree Pittsburgh is an environmental non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing community vitality by restoring and protecting the urban forest through tree planting and care, education, advocacy, and land conservation.
Metrics: Will begin planting 2023!
Omaha- The Big Garden
Location: Omaha Area & Rural Kansas
Mission: At The Big Garden, we grow healthy food, healthy kids, and healthy communities. We do that by building gardens; teaching children to grow, cook, and preserve their own food; and providing education to address the systemic nature of hunger in our communities.
Metrics: 39 orchards, 357 trees, 1.6M lifetime pounds, 4.9M lifetime servings
South Bend- Unity Gardens
Location: South Bend, Indiana
Mission: Unity Gardens Inc. is a collaborative network of community gardens originated to increase the availability, awareness, and accessibility of healthy, locally grown food.
Metrics: Will begin planting fall 2023!
St. Louis- Seed St. Louis (Formerly Gateway Greening)
Location: St. Louis Metropolitan Area
Mission: Seed St. Louis educates and empowers people to strengthen their communities through gardening and urban agriculture.
Metrics: 65 orchards, 684 trees, 2.2M lifetime pounds, 6.7M lifetime servings
Seattle- Tilth Alliance
Location: Seattle Area
Mission: Tilth Alliance works in community with Washington farmers, gardeners and eaters to build a sustainable, healthy and equitable food future.
Metrics: 19 orchards, 86 trees, 316K lifetime pounds, 950K lifetime servings
Additional Giving Grove Cities
Memphis, Tennessee
Location: Memphis Area
Metrics: 13 orchards, 100 trees, 490K lifetime pounds, 1.4M lifetime servings
Detroit, Michigan
Partners: Keep Growing Detroit & Michigan State Extention Office
Location: Detroit Area
Growing a National Network
Our program is designed for urban communities in USDA Growing Zones 5-8 that have high rates of food insecurity. To launch the program in a new city, we work in partnership with an existing urban agriculture or community gardening organization. The map below indicates our current affiliate cities (red apples) and cities where we think our little orchards can make a big impact (green, yellow, and blue apples). Interested in learning more? Contact us.
1M+ food insecure
New York City
450-650,000 food insecure
Atlanta
Chicago
Dallas
Detroit
Seattle
75-230,000 food insecure
Birmingham
Boston
Denver
Hartford
Little Rock
Nashville
Portland
Salt Lake City
Toledo
Interested in Bringing Giving Grove to Your City?
As part of the network, you take the lead in your community. Your organization already understands the needs and strengths of your community, its culture, its infrastructure. You have connections to families, community leaders and service providers. The Giving Grove simply provides you with the curriculum, mentoring, and seed funding to help you establish a new orcharding program.