Photo by Caleb Jones at PolyCulture Production at Gaia Gardens

Planting Orchards That Feed, Teach and Inspire

Since 2010, The Orchard Project has planted hundreds of trees, bushes and vines in over 100 orchards, providing direct access to local food and improving the region’s landscape. Schools, community groups and urban agriculture organizations collaborate to ensure the orchards receive the proper care and maintenance they need to thrive.

Starting in 2022, The Giving Grove, a national nonprofit, is giving metro Atlanta a unique opportunity to amplify our resources so that Food Well Alliance and the Community Orchard Coalition can increase equity in our local food system by putting abundant food sources across and beyond our service area. Our Community Orchard Coalition (formerly the Atlanta Local Food Initiative) includes Food Well Alliance, Community Farmers Markets, Concrete Jungle, Fruit Forward Orchards, and the Atlanta Regional Commission.

We are dedicated to increasing the sustainability of community gardens and urban farms, and we believe community orchards can be a powerful mechanism to start producing food in places we haven’t yet reached.

Photo by Caleb Jones at Good Samaritan Farm

THE ORCHARD PROJECT APPLICATION IS NOW OPEN ON A ROLLING BASIS

Food Well Alliance is now offering two Orchard Project application opportunities, which means that we can provide more sites with fruit trees and continue to increase access to local food.

Criteria

  • Sites located in Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Forsyth, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry, and Rockdale counties in Georgia.

  • Sites with easy access to water.

  • Sites that are sunny and well-drained.

  • Applicant has an orchard stewardship team in place.

  • Sites that are accessible to the public, such as a park, community garden, K-12 school, senior center, public housing, street planting, faith organization, youth activity center, supported living community, health or medical facility, university campus, etc.

  • Preference is given to orchards that donate food to charities that serve people in need or are situated in underserved communities as the harvests are intended to provide the community with access to fresh, healthy food.

  • Preference is given to sites that have a large enough space to accommodate ten or more trees.

  • Preference is given to sites that expand on an existing orchard.

For inquiries regarding The Orchard Project, please contact Fred Conrad at fred@foodwellalliance.org.

Orchard planting at Beecher Hills Community Garden

2022 Orchard Recipients

This year’s Fruit Tree Sale proceeds, when combined with a generous grant from Direct Relief and support from The Giving Grove, funded the planting of 18 orchards last spring and an additional 15 orchards in fall of 2022 to improve access to fresh, healthy fruits in food-insecure neighborhoods.

Spring

  1. Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area | Stonecrest, DeKalb

  2. Backyard Agriculture Education Station at Cherokee Veterans Park | Canton, Cherokee

  3. Campbellton Community Garden | Atlanta, Fulton

  4. Community Garden of Jonesboro | Jonesboro, Clayton

  5. Creative Community Garden | Lawrenceville, Gwinnett

  6. Cross Culture Community Garden | Lithonia, DeKalb

  7. Gardens at Camp Creek | Atlanta, Fulton

  8. Glenrose Gardens | Atlanta, Fulton

  9. Global Growers Network Rockdale Farm Orchard | Conyers, Rockdale

  10. Grape Roots | Atlanta, Fulton

  11. Jolly Avenue Garden | Clarkston, DeKalb

  12. Lodemia & I.T. Community Garden and Educational Center | Austell, Cobb

  13. Our Giving Garden | Mableton, Cobb

  14. Roots Bearing Fruits Community Garden | Decatur, DeKalb

  15. The Organic Garden at New Hope | Lawrenceville, Gwinnett

  16. The Wylde Center Sugar Creek Garden | Decatur, DeKalb

  17. Whitehall Terrace Community Garden | Atlanta, Fulton

  18. Your Faith Farms | Fairburn, Fulton

Fall

  1. Bear Creek Middle School | Atlanta Fulton

  2. Beecher Hills | Atlanta, Fulton

  3. Chattahoochee Hills Charter School | Chattahoochee Hills, Fulton

  4. Creekside High School | Atlanta Fulton

  5. Decatur Cemetery | Decatur, DeKalb

  6. East Point Historical Society | East Point, Fulton

  7. Elm Street Gardens | Atlanta, Fulton

  8. EMBARC Community Youth Farm | Lithonia, DeKalb

  9. GSU Decatur Campus | Panthersville, DeKalb

  10. Hyde Farm | Marietta, Cobb

  11. Lilburn Community Garden | Lilburn, Gwinnett

  12. Price Middle School | Atlanta, Fulton

  13. Stephenson High School | Stone Mountain, DeKalb

  14. Westside Atlanta Charter School | Atlanta, Fulton

  15. Young Middle School |Atlanta, Fulton

Support the Orchard Project!

The Orchard Project plants trees at no cost to the applicant, and the program is partially funded by our annual Fruit Tree Sale. The sale offers over 50 varieties of fruit trees, vines, berry bushes for planting in Georgia’s gardens and farms. Pre-orders for the 2024 Fruit Tree Sale are now open. Shop fruit trees online until Friday, February 9, 2024 and join us on Saturday, February 17, 2024 for the In-Person Sale and Pick-Up day!

Educational Resources

The Giving Grove Orchard Resources

A library of resources provided by The Giving Grove to help you successfully navigate holistic orcharding. This collection includes everything from planting seedlings to pruning to pest management.

In the News

 

Our Partners

The Giving Grove

The Giving Grove’s mission is to provide healthy calories, strengthen community, and improve the urban environment through a nationwide network of sustainable little orchards.

The Giving Grove began in 2013 as a grassroots effort to make free, fresh fruits, nuts, and berries available to Kansas City neighborhoods with high rates of food insecurity. The program was launched with the understanding that an orchard must be community-led and community-driven.

Within a few years, The Giving Grove helped install more than 100 orchards in neighborhoods throughout Kansas City that have faced decades of environmental and health inequities, creating beautiful community spaces that each produce hundreds of pounds of free, fresh produce for the neighborhood. After finding success with The Giving Grove program in Kansas City, its founders began expanding the program across the nation in 2019. Today, more than 300 of these little orchards, managed and maintained by more than 600 volunteer orchard stewards, are in six cities across the U.S, with dozens of new orchards added each year.

Our Funders