Image courtesy of Giving Grove
Giving Grove orchards provide free fruits, nuts and berries for neighborhoods facing food insecurity.
The Giving Grove, a Kansas City-based nonprofit serving communities experiencing a lack of access to fresh food, recently announced that it will expand to Nashville, TN, through a partnership with The Nashville Food Project. The Nashville Food Project will help community members plant new orchards and also inventory and support existing community orchard sites. “We are thrilled to welcome The Nashville Food Project into our national network! Much consideration and thought went into the development of this partnership, which will surely result in a successful and sustainable program for the Nashville community,” says Giving Grove Co-Executive Director Ashley Williamson. “We are ready to support their team as they become another hub for little orchards that benefit people and the planet.”
Founded in Kansas City in 2013, The Giving Grove began expanding nationally in 2017 and now supports urban orchard programs across the U.S. in collaboration with a robust network of local partners. Through this network, more than 1,000 volunteers serve as urban orchard stewards, caring for the orchards that nourish their local communities for decades. At full implementation, Giving Grove orchards will reach 15% of Americans experiencing food insecurity. The typical Giving Grove orchard will produce more than 7,544 servings of organically grown, free, fresh foods worth more than $6,337 annually. With a 30- to 50-year life expectancy, these orchards are building blocks of perennial food systems, sustaining the communities that steward them year after year.
“This partnership with the Giving Grove will allow us to expand our current model of community agriculture to include orchards grown in collaboration with partner organizations across the city, ultimately ensuring that nourishing food reaches all Nashvillians,” says C.J. Sentell, CEO of The Nashville Food Project.
The founders of McGruder Community Garden, Reverend and Mrs. Beach, tend an existing orchard stewarded in part by The Nashville Food Project.
The Nashville Food Project’s first step in this project, beginning in early 2025, will be extensive community outreach and partnership development to ensure this project has community support and collaboration and is successful in the short- and long-term. The organization hopes to begin planting community orchards and training community orchardists in late 2025, with first orchards likely appearing at the Food Project’s current network of community gardens and urban farms in North and South Nashville.
The Giving Grove programs equip neighborhood volunteers to plant and care for fruit trees, nut trees, and berry brambles that improve the urban environment, increase tree canopy, and provide a sustainable source of free, organically grown food for neighborhoods facing high rates of food insecurity. In addition to a robust community agriculture program, The Nashville Food Project also employs a unique food recovery model to glean ingredients for scratch-made meals shared with poverty-disrupting partner organizations across the city. Together, the two organizations aim to connect quality food with underserved communities.
Currently, over 600 Giving Grove urban orchards serve 14 cities nationwide, from Atlanta to Seattle. The typical orchard sequesters 29 tons of carbon and removes more than 195 pounds of pollution from the air and intercepts more than 240,000 gallons of rainfall, helping to stabilize urban soil and reduce risks of urban flooding.
Image courtesy of the Giving Grove
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Giving Grove’s vision is thousands of little orchards in food-insecure urban neighborhoods nationwide, creating a local food production system that feeds people for decades. Learn more at www.givinggrove.org.
Born from the idea that everyone should have access to the food they want and need, The Nashville Food Project brings people together to grow, cook, and share nourishing food. This year alone, we will share over 300,000 scratch-made meals and 40,000 pounds of fresh produce to sustain after-school programs, immigrant communities, homeless outreach organizations and many others in Nashville. Learn more at www.thenashvillefoodproject.org.