Countless citizens find fruit free of charge at The Giving Grove’s orchards
Photo Courtesy of The Giving Grove
It began as a search for a sustainable solution to provide healthy food to those in need. Now, 12 years after The Giving Grove’s first planting, more than 250 urban orchards dot the metro area.
Even more are growing in other cities across the country via programs that have found their roots with a little help from The Giving Grove.
Each orchard has volunteer stewards from the community who oversee and maintain it. Many of the orchards used to be vacant lots. Others can be found on properties with schools, religious institutions, or non-profits.
“The neighborhood purchases the land, and then we help them install the orchard. We keep up with our community engagement, our education, and our outreach to make sure that the orchard is fruitful and looking good, they know how to manage trees, and if they have any questions along the way, we’re there for them,” says Matt Bunch, horticulturist with Giving Grove and Director of Horticulture and Education at Kansas City Community Gardens.
For the first few years, they planted 24 to 30 orchards per year. Now, that number had dwindled to about 10 to 15 new ones—but for good cause. Because so many orchards are already established at this point, much of the focus has shifted to providing technical assistance, such as pruning support, to help the volunteers.
“I would describe it as improving neighborhood lots, increasing food security and food sovereignty, and I would say empowering neighborhoods to grow their own food,” Bunch says.
Photo Courtesy of The Giving Grove
Aviva DeLancey has been a co-steward for The Giving Grove’s first orchard, located at Hale Cook Elementary School, for over five years, and has had two children attend the school.
Her work involves putting down mulch, pruning, applying an organic insect spray, watering, and harvesting.
“We have a small but mighty group of parents that help out volunteering, at least for work parties and picking fruit,” she says. “Giving Grove itself is supportive in that they have mulch that we buy inexpensively from them and they deliver. They have tools we can borrow. Any time you have a question or a problem, they’ll come and take a look at things and help figure out what’s going on.”
She takes in-person and online classes that The Giving Grove offers, as well.
What DeLancey really enjoys about the involvement is working with the children.
“We do a birthday party every year now for the orchard as a way to introduce kindergarteners to the orchard when they come into school,” she says. “I love seeing their faces light up when they learn that this is their fruit, and they can come pick it and eat it, and it’s right there.”
One thing kids particularly relish is helping harvest the jujubes, date-like produce, by shaking the tree as a group, then getting to taste the fallen fruit.
Photo Courtesy of The Giving Grove
When The Giving Grove planted the orchard, the school had been closed for a few years, but DeLancey says having it there as part of a larger community effort supporting the school helped convince the Kansas City Public Schools to re-open it.
From chats she’s had with neighbors while working in the orchard, she knows it affects more than just little kids.
“Either they know it’s available for everyone, and they love it, and they tell you how much they enjoy picking the raspberries in the summer or picking the apples in the late summer or fall. But other times we tell people, ‘This is your orchard. You can come in and pick fruit any time it’s ready,’” she says.
Just this one orchard produces about 500 pounds of fruit each year.
Like DeLancey, Bunch often encourages people to get a taste of what a Giving Grove orchard does—literally.
“We have a number of these orchards that are on public property, that are open to the public, and they can take a fruit right off the tree, wipe it off, and eat it,” Bunch says. “I will come across people walking through one of our orchards, and you can tell they’re looking up in the tree. They’re curious. They want to know. And I’ll invite them to pick right off the tree.”
The fruit varies widely from orchard to orchard, but it can include Asian pears, cherries, persimmons, apples, peaches, and even pecans.
Some orchard hosts funnel their fruit to food pantries. One even makes preserves for a soup kitchen. The Giving Grove’s most significant achievements aren’t always edible, though.
“I think the biggest accomplishment is creating community spaces around these orchards. I think of these sites before they were orchards, and, really, you didn’t have gatherings in those spaces. You didn’t have neighbors meeting neighbors in those spaces,” Bunch says. “So I do think there has been a lot of community that has been created.”
They can always use volunteers for mulching, fertilizing, and thinning fruit. Bunch recommends anyone interested get involved with a location near them.
To find a Giving Grove orchard, visit givinggrove.org/our-program.
Click below to read the April 2025 Issue of The Pitch Magazine:
