REGENERATIVE INITIATIVES
Giving Grove Community Orchard
The Works, Inc. is proud to partner with The Giving Grove, whose mission is to provide healthy calories, strengthen community, and improve the urban environment through a nationwide network of sustainable little orchards.
Through this partnership, we are bringing long-term food security, public green space, and climate resilience to Memphis neighborhoods through our Community Orchards initiative. This work is led by the Memphis Native Tree Works (MNTW) team, our nonprofit native plant nursery, a project of The Works, Inc.
We currently support 14 orchards across the Memphis area, ranging from active production to engaged development. Each is deeply rooted in its community and stewarded by resident volunteers. These orchards are more than just places to grow fruit, they are neighborhood anchors that promote health, build resilience, and restore natural ecosystems in areas that have long suffered from underinvestment.
What We Grow
Each community orchard is planted with long-living, low-maintenance fruit and nut trees and edible shrubs, designed to produce free, fresh, and accessible food for generations. Our planting palette prioritizes native species that support both human health and the broader natural food web, providing critical habitat and forage for pollinators, which return the favor by pollinating our fruiting plants.
Why Community Orchards Matter
Memphis communities, particularly those identified as Low Income & Low Access (LILA) by the USDA Food Access Research Atlas, face overlapping challenges: food insecurity, limited access to public green space, and outsized climate impacts.
Our orchards address these issues head-on by:
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Expanding food access through free, hyper-local harvests of fresh fruits and nuts
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Improving public health by addressing nutrition disparities and encouraging time outdoors
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Transforming vacant properties into community assets and gathering spaces
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Mitigating climate impacts like urban heat and pluvial flooding through soil-building and canopy cover
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Supporting pollinators and biodiversity with native plant species that enrich the local ecosystem
WORK WITH US
Get involved with our work
Each orchard in our network thrives because of the Ambassadors, our dedicated resident caretakers. Memphis Native Tree Works provides ongoing support, training, and horticultural guidance to orchard stewards.
Are you a resident or community group interested in hosting and caring for an orchard long-term? We’d love to hear from you, especially if your neighborhood faces limited access to healthy food.
Reach out to us at mary.s@theworkscdc.org to learn more and start a conversation.
We prioritize sites in USDA-designated LILA areas but are open to partnerships anywhere in the greater Memphis area where the vision aligns.
QUICK LINKS
CONTACT
Address : 1471 Genesis Circle, Memphis, TN 38106