Giving Grove

This Steward Spotlight is worth taking a couple minutes to read! Zac and the Johnson County WIC orchard and community garden have produced over 20,000 pounds of fresh, free food to donate to community members. This is a BIG IMPACT! Below is a sneak peek of his Steward Spotlight, but click the link to read the full story and see some photos of this beautiful orchard and the folks who work to make a difference in Johnson County, Kansas. - The Johnson County WIC community g...arden and orchard, stewarded by Zachary Hoppenstedt and planted in 2014, is connected to a acre garden next to the Kansas State Extension office and Johnson County Health Department. The orchard and garden were developed to educate, empower, and feed the families who belong to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Thanks to this orchard and garden, the Johnson County WIC program can provide nutritious food and health education to the nearly 4,000 area families that qualify! WIC clients who volunteer in the community garden are given the first pick of the fresh fruits and vegetables harvested. The remaining produce is distributed to clients at the Health Department and neighboring food pantries. To date, the garden and orchard have produced more than 20,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables for donation. Zachary spends his working hours as a Horticultural Extension Agent with Kansas State University. He provides assistance and training to fruit and vegetable growers in Johnson County, Kansasmaking him a more-than-qualified Giving Grove steward! When Zachary isn’t in his Giving Grove Little Orchard, you can find him traveling to local farms, vineyards, and community gardens to diagnose plants, identify insects, and collect soil samples. Volunteers and garden manager Louis Seibel help Zachary maintain the orchard. The volunteers (including many who have been with the orchard for longer than Zachary) work one-on-one with WIC clients, youth groups, and drop-ins to ensure the space is maintained and productive. Apart from the sheer production of fresh fruit for our clients, the orchard is an educational space where community members build new skills and awareness around agriculture and natural sciences. I get to see our regular volunteers grow in their confidence level with orchard tasks like tree planting, pest scouting, blossom thinning, etc., says Zachary. Socioeconomic, cultural and environmental factors contribute to poor nutrition habits. The WIC Community Garden and Orchard aims to overcome these barriers by meeting volunteers where they are, empowering them with foundational knowledge, and providing direct access to nutritious food..." Click the link to keep reading! #StewardSpotlight #UrbanOrchards #LittleOrchards #LittleOrchardsBigImpact #GivingGrove #JOCOWIC #KansasOrchard

We *LOVE* this recent note that came with a donation! What a sweet way to show one’s love and appreciation on Valentine’s Day than to give a gift that will last generations. It’s not too late to donate a tree in honor of your valentine! Visit www.givinggrove.org/donate or click on the donate button below! #GivingGrove #DonateATree #AGiftThatLastsGenerations #UrbanOrchards #LittleOrchards #LittleOrchardsBigImpact

Let us introduce you to our new friends at Tennessee Urban Forestry Council. We love connecting with other organizations working to improve the urban tree canopy!

We are so grateful to Hydroflask for their support of our little orchard program! #ParksForAll #HydroFlask #GivingGrove #LittleOrchards #UrbanOrchard

Winter pruning is upon us! Pruning is typically the most intimidating task when it comes to urban orcharding. The Giving Grove staff has made an easy to follow step-by-step guide to help you every snip of the way. Print it out and take it to the orchard with you! Don’t forget to contact your local affiliate with any orcharding questions or concerns. www.givinggrove.org/our-affiliates - -... - #GivingGrove #UrbanOrchard #FruitTreePruning #DormantPruning #WinterPruning #LittleOrchards #LittleOrchardsBigImpact www.givinggrove.org/dormant-pruning-guide See more

There’s a *BIG* football game this weekend, and our hometown team, the Kansas City Chiefs, are playing once again! Our Giving Grove mascot had to show his best Mahomes on this #RedFriday. We hope everyone has a lot of safe fun this weekend watching the game. Go Chiefs! - - - #KCChiefs #KansasCity #GoChiefs #HometownKC #MadeinKC ... Patrick Mahomes The Kansas City Chiefs See more

Want to share a story from your little orchard with Steve Kraske? Here's how!

Set an alert to tune into Up to date on KCUR 89.3 at 9:00 AM CST TOMORROW to catch our fearless leader, Rob, discuss hunger in rural Kansas and how organizations like The Giving Grove are making a BIG IMPACT, as well as our expansion across the USA! Earlier this month, we announced that The Giving Grove program would be extending its reach to rural Kansas in partnership with The Big Garden, a member of the Giving Grove affiliate network. We are thrilled about this new direc...tion our program is taking and can't wait to see our little orchards' impact on hunger across the country. Make sure to tune in online or on the radio to hear more details about this expansion! https://www.kcur.org/podcast/up-to-date - - - #GivingGrove #LittleOrchardsBigImpact #RuralKansas #TheBigGarden

Today we want to thank our stewards and volunteers. You are the LIFEBLOOD of this organization! Stewards spend countless hours and days maintaining and nurturing each little orchard. It is their work and determination that provides THOUSANDS of servings of nutritious fruit, berries, and nuts every year. We thank you for bringing us into your world and allowing us to be a part of the BIG IMPACT you make in your communities. Every month we highlight a steward, and this mo...nth we would like to highlight a steward from our affiliate Gateway Greening in St. Louis, Laura Gatlin of the Carondelet Food Patch. This food patch is a community orchard and garden. Volunteers sustainably and inclusively lead it. They believe that everyone should have access to fresh vegetables and produce. The food grown in their patch is available to anyone in the community. As a nurse and outdoors lover, Laura was inspired by many of the hungry neighbors in her community and felt compelled to do something about it. With three food pantries (one being her own) in her neighborhood, a friend suggested that a Giving Grove orchard would be perfect for her community. I thought about it for a while and decided that it was a good idea. There are so many hungry people in my neighborhood, and it can be difficult to get ahold of fresh fruits and veggies. To read more about Laura and her wonderful food patch, follow the link to our blog post! - - - #GivingGrove #LittleOrchardsBigImpact #StewardSpotlight #Thankful #GivingGroveThankfulWeek www.givinggrove.org/blog/steward-spotlight-laura-gatlin

Another new orchard in the books! The team was at Lily Creek Farms over the weekend installing a lovely orchard on beautiful farmland. - - #GivingGrove #LittleOrchardsBigImpact #FallPlanting #fallorcharding