About Us

Our Story

The Giving Grove began in 2013 as a grassroots effort to make free, fresh fruits, nuts, and berries available to Kansas City neighborhoods with high rates of food insecurity.  The program was launched with the understanding that an orchard must be community-led and community-driven.  At the neighborhood’s request, The Giving Grove helps provide the trees, supplies, and training necessary to grow a fruitful orchard. 

Within a few years, The Giving Grove helped install more than 100 orchards in neighborhoods throughout Kansas City that have faced decades of environmental and health inequities, creating beautiful community spaces that each produce hundreds of pounds of free, fresh produce for the neighborhood.  After finding success with The Giving Grove program in Kansas City, its founders began expanding the program across the nation in 2017.

Today, more than 550 of these little orchards, managed and maintained by more than 1,000 volunteer orchard stewards, are in fourteen cities across the U.S, with dozens of new orchards added each year.  These neighborhood orchards have thousands of fruit trees that will:

• Produce more than 64.5 million servings of free, healthy food over their lifetimes (which can be up to 50 years or more)

• Sequester 1,000 tons of carbon

• Absorb about 177,632 gallons of water per storm, reducing urban flooding and soil erosion

• Lower urban air temperatures during the summer, reducing risks of heat-related illness

• Improve soil biology through holistic orcharding techniques that avoid artificial pesticides and fertilizers, which is healthier for the earth and the people eating the fruit.

Thanks to our volunteer orchard stewards, this “little orcharding idea” has created a BIG impact across the nation and its still growing!

Ashley brings local and international experience in program development, community engagement, and research. She has a Master in Social Work Advocacy, Policy and Administration from the University of Kansas and is passionate about connecting people, ideas and policies. A dedicated Kansas City community member, Ashley is continuously involved in boards and leadership programs, currently serving as Secretary of Unified Government of Wyandotte Board of Parks Commission, Board Member of Community Capital Fund, Advisory Board Member for the Pride Fund Committee of Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce, and Advisory Committee Member for the Kansas City Young Farmers Coalition. Ashley is always looking forward to a good podcast, book, or the next time she can work in her ever-expanding vegetable garden.

Contact Ashley Williamson

Erica Kratofil, MSW, is Co-Executive Director for The Giving Grove, where she helps lead a national network of urban community orchard and food forest programs. As a social worker, Erica is passionate about community vitality and the many ways that urban orchards benefit both people and the planet. Erica is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and has a Master in Social Work and Nonprofit Management from Washington University in St. Louis. She has worked previously in education, food security initiatives and community-based housing programs. She also served as a social work field instructor for the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Contact Erica Kratofil

Sarah joins us after spending the previous ten years running her own freelance design and communications business. She enjoys being able to combine her professional experience with one of her dearest hobbies, gardening. As a volunteer at the first Giving Grove little orchard, she has experienced firsthand the importance of a little orchard in an urban area and felt drawn to help further spread Giving Grove’s mission. She is a Drury University graduate with a Master's in Integrated Marketing Communications. Sarah spends her free time volunteering at her children’s school, reading under trees, sitting by the water, and planning her next urban vegetable garden.

Contact Sarah Sikich

Ryan has been dedicated to community greening and garden education for over a decade. Originally from Los Angeles, California, he graduated from UCLA with degrees in Political Science and History. After leaving a career in the legal field, he found his passion in urban agriculture. A graduate of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Brooklyn Urban Gardener (BUG) program, Ryan went on to co-found and manage North Brooklyn Farms, an urban farm and public green space at the historic Domino Sugar Factory, from 2013 to 2019. He was also a founding member of the 61 Franklin Street Garden in Brooklyn, New York. Today, Ryan lives with his wife, Ashli, at their home in the Catskill Mountains, where they run Wild Russet Farm. Together, they care for an heirloom apple orchard and produce cider and vinegar in Jeffersonville, New York.

Contact Ryan Watson

Matt’s love for plants and gardening grew from the gardens of his parents and grandparents. Schooled as a history major, Matt has worked in the horticulture profession since 1994 in retail, municipal, and public garden capacities. From 2004 to 2013, Matt was with Powell Gardens (Kansas City’s Botanical Garden), first as a Native Plant Landscape Specialist, then as the Horticulturist for the 12-acre Heartland Harvest Garden edible landscape. Matt continues to garden at home with his family, is always in search of the next champion tree, and by informal count, has planted close to 10,000 trees. Matt has been with The Giving Grove since 2013.

Contact Matt Bunch