Wyld's Partnership with The Giving Grove

Wyld is proud to support The Giving Grove's national network of small community orchards, which are planted in neighborhoods that struggle with food insecurity. Fruit trees, nut trees, and berry brambles supply free, fresh food, and they turn overlooked urban lots into green spaces where neighbors can come together.

Small orchards, big returns

For the newest episode of Wyld Works, our crew traveled to St. Louis to join The Giving Grove and a group of local volunteers planting peach, pear, and apple trees in a community orchard. On site, Aleah Likas, the organization's Director of Strategic Partners, shared a number that stuck with us: an average Giving Grove orchard has roughly 15 trees and can yield around 6,000 to 9,000 servings of food each year.

Cultivating food and connection

The Giving Grove envisions each orchard as a shared space where neighbors get to know one another, with the community taking root right alongside the trees and brambles. Their network now spans more than 847 orchards across the country. As the plantings mature, so does the community around them, built on common effort, common know-how, and in time, a common harvest.

Then there's the impact you can't put a number on. In St. Louis, someone told us about a community bulletin board crowded with flyers and announcements. Tucked in among them was a handwritten note reading, "This place saved my life."

Why we're proud to work with The Giving Grove

What we appreciate even more is how The Giving Grove operates. They only go where they're welcomed, partnering with local volunteers to establish sustainable, organically grown food sources that the community can steward as its own.

It starts with a handful of trees on a modest patch of land, but it's the kind of project that keeps on growing for years to come.