Community Fruit Trees - Growing Community One Tree at a Time

1 Million Community Fruit Trees Initiative

The 1 Million Community Fruit Trees Initiative is a grassroots, collaborative effort of thousands of engaged Earth citizens to plant 1 million fruit and nut trees over the next decade!
We have created a decentralized system to empower individuals and communities to grow, distribute, plant and care for their own fruit and nut trees.

Community Fruit Trees got our start in 2018 and since then we’ve planted 2,000 trees across the nation. Our limiting factor has always been the cost of purchasing trees from nurseries (often at $20-$40 per tree). Through our Micro-Nursery system we will get our cost per tree down to $1-$2. This changes everything!

A Micro-Nursery is a 4’ x 8’ raised bed that can produce 1,000 trees yearly. 1,000 trees in a space the size of a dining room table! We provide the instructions, guidance and financial support to community members to establish Micro-Nurseries. All it takes to become a Micro-Nursery Steward is some time, dedication and a small space.

Trees are planted in the nurseries by cutting or seed and are ready to be harvested to be planted in the community within one year. Trees will be distributed both locally and by mail through our nationwide community of Tree Stewards who will plant and care for these trees for the years ahead. Our air-pruning system creates healthy, resilient trees that have a very high survival rate.

Our focus is planting trees in publicly accessible spaces where the entire community has access to the nourishing fruits and nuts that are produced. Our program aims to reduce hunger, improve our natural environment, create a deeper connection to our food, build community, and exercise our independence from the globalized, industrial food system. This is about healing our relationship with Earth and one another!

Over the next two years we will establish hundreds of local Micro-Nurseries creating a grassroots network present in all 50 US states, and potentially internationally as well.
This is how we will plant 1 million community fruit and nut trees over the next decade!

Our Timeline:

Establish 10 Micro-Nurseries in 2026.
By fall of 2026, we hope to have 10,000 fruit and nut trees in our nurseries to plant including our elderberry live-staking campaign
Scale up to 50 Micro-Nurseries in spring 2027 to plant 50,000 trees in fall 2027.
Scale up to 100 Micro-Nurseries in fall 2027 to plant 100,000 trees in fall 2028.
Plant 170,000 Community Fruit Trees from 2025-2028.
Plant 100,000 trees yearly during 2028-2037 to plant one million trees in ten years.

Get Involved!

Become a Micro-Nursery Steward to grow hundreds or thousands of trees for the community. Read our Micro-Nursery Creation and Stewardship Guide to see if this is a match for you, then fill out this form.

Plant Trees in Your Community!

Request trees from us. Request trees here.
Source trees yourself. We don’t yet have the ability to provide trees to everyone who requests them, but that doesn’t have to stop you from planting Community Fruit Trees! Simply source your trees, follow the guidelines for a good location, plant the trees, put up a sign and add the tree to the community map and then email us at cft@robingreenfield.org so we can add it to the database.
Take part in our Elderberry Live Staking Campaign. Find out how in the Elderberry Live Staking Guide.

Share Your Tree with the Community. Already have a fruit tree and want to share the bounty with your neighbors? Simply put up a sign, add it to the community map and then email us at cft@robingreenfield.org so we can add it to the public database.

Sponsor the planting of Community Fruit Trees! Donate here. We are looking for Micro-Nursery Sponsors. A donation of $1,000 will allow us to establish a Micr0-Nursery that can grow 1,000 trees yearly!

Volunteer or join our team. We are seeking volunteers to harvest seeds and cuttings, store and distribute seeds, handle admin work and more. Learn more here and fill out this form. We are also hiring! Learn more here.

Join our Facebook Group; where those involved or interested in the Community Fruit Tree program exchange updates, advice, and establish a larger connected network for community and support.

We welcome you to read the 1 Million Community Fruit Trees Initiative Summary if you’d like to know more about the design, development and aspirations of our program.

Donate to Help Us Plant 1 Million Trees

Community Fruit for All

What are Community Fruit Trees?

Community Fruit Trees are generally publicly owned and available for everyone to enjoy. The goal is to have access to delicious, nutritious fruit. We also hope to reduce hunger, improve our natural environment, create a deeper connection to our food, build community, and exercise our independence from the globalized, industrial food system.

A sign next to the trees invite people to enjoy the fruit. Trees can be found on the map below. Just imagine picking an abundance of fruit directly from the trees and shrubs right in your neighborhood!

We are here to help establish Community Fruit Trees in your community!

For information on how to add Community Fruit Trees to the Falling Fruit Map, follow this page for instructions. (Whether you are a recipient of our program or not you are welcome to use this.)

We have signs printed for many of our trees, but they can be hand made with scrap material as well.

Why do we need Community Fruit Trees?

Everyone deserves fresh fruit, but millions of US Americans live in food deserts (more aptly titled food apartheid) with limited access to local produce. Grocery store fruit typically arrives from across the country and around the world via fossil fuel-powered transportation, causing harm to the environment. These fruits are also generally picked unripe, which hinders peak flavor and nutrition. Food doesn’t have to come from the store. It can grow freely and abundantly all around us!

Where can the trees be planted?

We often focus on highly accessible locations – residential front yards and businesses with access from a public sidewalk, in the medians between streets and sidewalk, at schools, in public parks, in churchyards, and along bike trails to name a few places. But we welcome trees to be planted anywhere that they serve the people and Earth!

This is a Mulberry tree planted in a front yard in 2018 and already producing fruit in 2019. This will grow to be a large tree producing many thousands of mulberries.

Planting on the median between the street and sidewalk:

How did the Community Fruit Trees program begin?

We set out on the mission to ensure that our neighbors had access to delicious, nutritious fruit. To do this, Robin Greenfield and the Live Like Ally Foundation came together to establish the grassroots project, Community Fruit Trees. By establishing public fruit trees, this initiative helps reduce hunger, creates a deeper connection to our food, improves our natural environment, builds community, and exercises our independence from the globalized, industrial food system. We believe food is a human right, not a commodity.

In 2018, the Community Fruit Trees program launched in Orlando, Florida where we planted 200 Community Fruit Trees. In November 2019, we began offering grants to folks across the USA to bring Community Fruit Trees to their towns. In 2021 the initiative successfully planted 1,000 Community Fruit Trees in 30 communities across 20 states. To date we have planted over 2,000 Community Fruit Trees.

Is Planting Trees a Fruitful Investment?

You bet it is! Even when we were purchasing trees, a fruit tree typically cost our program around $30 (the cost of a dozen pounds of fruit) plus the cost of mulch and tree protection and the time needed to plant it and minimal ongoing care. That small effort will provide fresh, local, nutritious fruit for your community for many years to come. A single mature persimmon tree has the ability to grow as much as 90 to 100 pounds of fresh fruit in one season, talk about a return on investment! We want to help ensure your success. Please utilize the resources linked below for a wealth of knowledge and support!