Story Community Garden

Kansas City has 248 free fruit orchards, and anyone can pick from them. 🍐

They come from the Giving Grove, a Kansas City nonprofit that plants fruit trees on vacant lots, school grounds and other unused land, then trains neighbors to care for them. The idea started with a small stand of trees at Hale Cook Elementary in Waldo and has since spread across the country.

By the numbers:
🌳 248 orchards in Kansas City with almost 4,600 fruit, nut and berry trees
🗺️ More than 14,000 trees planted in 17 cities, from Seattle to Atlanta
🧺 847 orchards nationwide, all free to pick
🧑‍🌾 About 1,700 volunteer orchard stewards
✅ More than four out of five orchards planted are still producing
🏘️ More than 1 million people live within walking distance of one

St. Louis was the first city outside KC to sign on, about nine years ago. The group says it is now in talks about orchards in San Francisco, Minneapolis and New York City, and it only goes where a community invites it. It spends a little over $1 million a year helping new orchards get established, with much of the money coming through 1% for the Planet.

Marketing director Sarah Sikich told KCUR she jokes that Kansas City should be the city of orchards, not the city of fountains.

Have you picked fruit from one of these orchards? Let us know in the comments.

🌳♻️ SCG will be in the community!

Story Community Garden will be at The Greening of Detroit Tree & Mum Giveaway, representing Green Living Science and helping residents sign up for recycling! 💚

📍 Adams-Butzel Complex
📅 Saturday, October 10 | 10 AM

Come grab a free tree & mum, stop by our table, and let’s keep Detroit growing greener! 🌱

At Story Community Garden, we believe one of nature’s greatest lessons is that nothing truly has to go to waste.

🍎 Food scraps
🍂 Leaves
🌿 Plant trimmings
☕ Coffee grounds
🌾 Yard waste

When we compost, these materials break down and become rich, living organic matter that feeds the soil. That healthy soil helps our plants develop stronger roots, retain moisture, and grow.

Composting is more than getting rid of scraps — it’s returning nutrients to the earth and creating a cycle of growth. 🌎💚

♻️ Waste less. Grow more. Give back to the soil.

Healthier Soil 🌱 Healthier Food 🥕 Stronger Community 🤝

This month, Story Community Garden honors Hoodoo heritage—a living tradition deeply connected to African American history, spirituality, nature, community, and ancestral knowledge.

Hoodoo carries generations of wisdom about working with plants, herbs, food, prayer, protection, healing, and the natural world. Much of this knowledge was preserved and passed down through families and communities, even through difficult periods in history.

🌱 We honor the ancestors.
🌿 We honor the knowledge keepers.
🪴 We honor the plants and land.
🤎 We honor the stories that continue to be passed forward.

At SCG, we believe that growing food can also mean growing connection—to our history, our communities, and the earth.

Rooted in the past. Growing for the future.