Planting orchards for schoolchildren worldwide

We would like to share our most recent Fruit Tree 101 orchard planting project with our wonderful supporters here on GlobalGiving!

Last month, the FTPF team was in Los Angeles in order to plant four new orchards around the city. One of these orchards was at 10th Street Elementary school, a campus a stone's throw from downtown LA and surrounded by concrete and asphalt in all directions. We were invited by our partners at Seeds of Hope, the nearby Pico Union Project, and 10th Street's principal to plant 21 trees around the school, as well as distribute an additional 30 to families and neighbors. Everyone who attended the event was so grateful and excited to see fruit-bearing trees and plants go into the ground, focusing on the idea of a local source of nutrition and long-lasting environmental impacts that are needed in their urban environment. As the director of Seeds of Hope said in an interview during the event with a local news station:

"This is a food desert..Most of us live in places of great abundance and we don't recognize necessarily that a lot of our neighbors don't have easy access and it's not exactly affordable."

This is why fruit trees are needed in schools, to ensure that all students--especially those in food deserts and other vulnerable areas--have access to healthy nutrition, a clean and safe environment, and environmental education. That will be a reality at 10th Street Elementary school for decades to come, thanks to the support of people like you.

To a fruitful future for students everywhere,

The FTPF Team