How urban orchards improve a community’s access to fresh, healthy food

Largely left out of the school-food equation, though, have been tree fruits and nuts — an oversight that Maine-based ReTreeUS is working to overcome. Since its founding in 2009, the nonprofit has planted more than 100 orchards, ranging in size from 10 to 100 trees, in schoolyards in its home state as well as in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Orchards give children “easy access to the natural environment,” says founder Richard Hodges, granting them the ability to “watch trees grow over time, care for them and [see] those trees begin to fruit.” ReTreeUS is part of a much larger movement that aims not only to plant orchards in schools, but to place them widely across urban spaces — in vacant lots, community gardens, parks, and hospital and faith-based plots. They’re a potent way, says Ryan Watson, to “make community impact.”

Watson is national orchard operations and education manager for The Giving Grove, an organization begun in Kansas City, Missouri, in 2013 that’s partnered with programs like ReTreeUS to establish, to date, 680 orchards in 16 cities from Seattle, Washington, to Raleigh, North Carolina. These orchards provide nutritious food, as well as co-benefits like shade-giving tree canopy, to residents of under-resourced neighborhoods. As the federal government begins to cut back on programs that help low-income Americans afford groceries, and strips funding for school meals that provide fresh local food, “That makes the work that we do even more imperative for supporting people who otherwise might not have access,” Watson says.

No two Giving Grove affiliates are quite the same in how they create orchards for the people who would benefit from them — Watson compares them to fingerprints, each unique in its way. But Giving Grove does have a broad mission to serve communities in need and encourages its affiliates to share their harvests, whether that be Asian pears picked for cafeteria lunches, apples donated to food pantries or raspberries plucked by any hungry neighbor. Potential partners must have a dedicated space for their orchard — no street trees, which come with maintenance challenges — that has access to water and sun. They also must have at least two “stewards” to assist with planting, tackle necessary tree maintenance and oversee distribution of the harvest. In return, Giving Grove offers some matching funds, plus consultation, soil testing, access to nursery discounts, education about best practices for things like mulching and pruning, and a network of partners that together provide “lifetime support,” Watson says. “We don’t tell anyone what to do. We’re there to offer assistance and advice and insight.” That includes workshops on fermentation and other ways to extend a fruit harvest.

Apples and peaches are popular picks for a lot of would-be orchardists, even though they’re prone to disease and generally hard to take care of. Over time, though, Watson has noticed that affiliates often become interested in adding more native species to the mix — what he calls “right plant, right place” — like papaws in Pittsburgh (one orchard there has attracted now-rare zebra swallowtail butterflies with its papaw trees), muscadines in Georgia, berries in Washington State. Giving Grove also recommends planting understory fruit-bearing shrubs and vines that support pollinators and increase soil fertility, carbon sequestration and water retention. And as more and more affiliates start orchards near each other, they can take advantage of their proximity to get group discounts on trees, share planting materials and trade local growing knowledge.

Hodges at ReTreeUS says most of the schools he works with are interested in apples, peaches, pears and plums. He consults with them about what they want to plant and where, provides them with trees and shrubs he’s purchased then grown out in his own nursery — he’s recently lost two federal grants that support these efforts and is struggling to make up the difference — then works with students to put the trees in the ground. “My approach is really trying to make it like an outdoor classroom and building lessons around that,” Hodges says. When fruit and nuts are ready to eat, “Kids can pick on their way to school. Or there might be an organized harvest, where it goes into the cafeteria and any abundance goes to local food pantries. Everybody loves it.”

Food Well Alliance, an organization with a mission to support the building of community gardens and urban farms that promote food security around Atlanta, Georgia, has recently begun receiving matching funds and other grant opportunities from Giving Grove to expand the number of orchards in the city. “That looks like technical assistance for different challenges that come up,” says Kate Connor, Food Well Alliance’s executive director. It’s also delivering bulk compost and seedlings and volunteers and training. Preference is given to sites, including schools, that intend to share their harvests with those in need. “If you’re receiving trees and support from us, you [agree] that you’ll donate at least 50 percent out to the community,” Connor says. The organization encourages its partners to focus on apples, pears, plums, figs, hazelnuts and pecans, along with blueberries, blackberries and raspberries. (“Get a fig tree if you want to feel successful,” Connor says.) An annual tree sale supports the purchase of these and other orchard plants.