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:

  1. Interest: A neighborhood or community leader contacts the local Giving Grove program manager to express interest in planting an orchard for their community.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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!

  7. 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: 58 orchards, 770 trees, 3.8M lifetime pounds, 11.3M 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: 14 orchards, 351 trees, 1.2M lifetime pounds, 3.5M lifetime servings


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.

Metrics: 33 orchards, 487 trees, 1.8M lifetime pounds, 5.3M 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: 40 orchards, 502 trees, 1.7M lifetime pounds, 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: 24 orchards, 536 trees, 1.6K lifetime pounds, 4.8M 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: 261 orchards, 4,476 trees, 23.2M lifetime pounds, 69.6M 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, 24 trees, 148K lifetime pounds, 445K lifetime servings


Nashville- Nashville Food Project

Location: Nashville Area

Mission: To bring people together to grow, cook and share nourishing food, with the goals of cultivating community and alleviating hunger in our city.

Metrics: Will begin planting in Spring 2025!


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: 48 orchards, 465 trees, 2.1M lifetime pounds, 6.3M 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: 18 orchards, 113 trees, 243K lifetime pounds, 730K lifetime servings


St. Louis- Seed St. Louis

Location: St. Louis Metropolitan Area

Mission: Seed St. Louis educates and empowers people to strengthen their communities through gardening and urban agriculture.

Metrics: 79 orchards, 918 trees, 2.7M lifetime pounds, 8.1M 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


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: 12 orchards, 226 trees, 1.3M lifetime pounds, 3.7M 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.