Want to Start a Native community orchard? Here are free trees to get you started!

In-kind donations of fruit trees, equipment, volunteer workers, and training to USA nonprofits, public schools, and government entities to create orchards in communal and public places. Funding is intended to improve the surrounding environment and provide a source of healthy nutrition for the community. 

FTPF programs strategically donate orchards where the harvest will best serve communities for generations, at places such as community gardens, public schools, city/state parks, low-income neighborhoods, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries. 

Orchard donations are available for recipients who pledge to care for the trees and utilize them for a charitable purpose. If selected for an orchard donation, FTPF will provide high-quality fruit trees and shrubs, organic soil amendments, equipment, planting volunteers, and on-site orchard design work, horticultural workshops, and aftercare training . FTPF will also help coordinate all aspects of the planting and offer an educational experience for volunteers interested in learning more about tree planting. Free community arboricultural workshops are also available the day of the planting.

Public Schools

The “Fruit Tree 101” program creates outdoor edible orchard classrooms at public and nonprofit schools of all levels, across the country, to provide generations of students with environmental education opportunities and a source of organic fruit for improved school lunch nutrition. The “Fruit Tree 101” event is typically completed in two parts. The first, typically held on a weekend to accommodate volunteer schedules, involves planting the orchard under the direction of our certified arborist. FTPF relies on the school to help coordinate local volunteers for this day. 

The second part, held when school is in session, invites students to join FTPF’s instructors for a fun, hour-long lesson about the importance of trees for the environment and fruit in the diet—culminating in a group tree planting exercise. Local media often attends and reports on the great things that are happening at the school. 

FTPF ideally seeks schools that can accommodate at least 20-25 trees on school grounds (at 15 ft. intervals) near existing irrigation sources (e.g. spigot or sprinklers). Orchards provide benefits for decades, and once they become established, require little maintenance.

Recipient Requirements:

1. Recipients must be nonprofits, NGOs, public schools, or government entities serving a charitable purpose. Most of the programs are implemented in the U.S., however, FTPF does consider international projects as well.

2. Recipients must be fully committed to caring for the trees in perpetuity with a clear goal to use the orchard to further their charitable mission.

3. Recipients must have a horticulturally appropriate planting site, capable of hosting a grove of fruit trees at approximately 12-15 ft. intervals. The application helps evaluate all the appropriate site factors.

4. Recipients must either a) own the planting site, b) have a long-term lease in place, or c) work with a nonprofit or government entity that owns the planting site with a long-term usage agreement in place.

5. The orchard must have a reliable source of year-round irrigation nearby.

6. Recipients must help coordinate the attendance of local volunteers on planting day. Orchard stewardship is maximized when local volunteers are involved.

7. For interested schools, only public schools are eligible at the present time. 

If donated trees are part of a tree give-away program, then the trees shall only be used for the good of the community, consistent with the recipient’s charitable mission. This may include distributing trees directly to families or individuals who would most benefit from and best utilize the trees as a source of improved nutrition.

For more infomation contact:
The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation 
PO Box 81881
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
Ph: 831-621-8096
Fax: 831-621-7978
Application: http://www.ftpf.org/apply.htm