The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation (FTPF) is an award-winning international nonprofit dedicated to planting fruit and nut trees to alleviate global hunger and pollution, strengthen families, and improve the surrounding air, soil, and water.
FTPF programs strategically donate orchards where the harvest will best serve communities for generations, at places such as public schools, city parks, community gardens, low-income neighborhoods, Native American reservations, international hunger relief sites, and animal sanctuaries.
For FTPF, this process starts with a simple act that offers an elegant solution to so many of today’s problems through the planting of a fruit tree.
In the twenty-plus years FTPF has been working with communities worldwide on its mission, hundreds of thousands of fruit trees have been planted, providing life-sustaining nutrition, income-generating opportunities, and improved environmental conditions for countless families and schools.
FTPF follows “veganic” principles (meaning both vegan and organic) so that the results are always animal- and earth-friendly. We are especially proud to be a recipient of PETA’s “Most Animal-Friendly World Hunger Charity” award.
Yet, our programs involve so much more than just the trees and also include onsite environmental curriculum for students, workshops and training for orchard caretakers, and aftercare resources to ensure tree survival.
At St. Benedict’s Grade School in Jinja, Uganda, standing underneath the canopy of the orchard with her students nearby, Deputy Headteacher Elizabeth Amedo told us that: “The fruit trees from the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation’s project have provided nutrition for every single student and teacher in our school. The students appreciate the fruits so much that they line up, sometimes three times a week, to receive and share this fruit in groups, which also teaches them about charity and compassion for one another.”
In the small El Salvadoran community of Los Decidios after being invited to a site where we planted several orchards, we were welcomed by vibrant fruit tree fields on both sides of the road, with hundreds of beautiful mangos hanging overhead and all around us, practically everywhere we looked.
Greeted by a family caretaking for their orchard, we asked what the trees meant for their livelihood. The patriarch of the family, Jose Alfonzo, while standing with his arm around his young son, reflected: “Four days ago I cut down about 700 mangoes and by the end of the week it was about 1,000 fruits. I support my entire family solely on the income from these mangoes; that is what we are surviving on right now. This program has been extremely important for us.”
The benefits of giving back to the earth and our loved ones by planting fruit trees can take many forms. Studies, including one out of Texas A&M University, have repeatedly found that when people are around trees, even within just a few minutes, stress is reduced and moods improve.
Just two trees can provide all the oxygen one needs to breathe, with larger trees producing about 260 pounds of oxygen every year.
A single tree can absorb approximately 330 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and filter about ten pounds of pollution from our environment annually. And just as importantly, responsible tree-planting programs can provide families with an alternative to animal agriculture while improving ecosystems for local wildlife.
We also know from many FTPF events that tree planting can result in the most delightful smiles, high fives, and tears of joy and hope.
We invite anyone interested in experiencing all of these amazing benefits first-hand to join us on one of our volunteer opportunities, or to simply support our work through donations.
One of FTPF’s mottos is that once we plant trees together, we are friends for life — and we are looking forward to making so many new friends and reconnecting with old ones. To learn more about how to get involved, please visit ftpf.org.
P.S. Check out Alicia’s blog on using grey water in the garden for your plants and trees.
And more charities to support:
- Switch4good Wants Equal Milk For All
- Mercy For Animals: Preventing Cruelty And Promoting Compassionate Food Choices
- Farm Sanctuary: Let’s Build The Good Together
- The Gentle Barn: ‘we Never Give Up On An Animal’
- How Beyond Fences Brings Pet Resources To Underserved Communities
- Children’s Health Defense: Groundbreaking Change Powered By Parents
- Meals That Heal With Peta India
