What is the Community Food Forest? - Our Project

The Community Food Forest is a thriving, beautiful mutual aid project on the North side of Ann Arbor that interweaves ecological restoration and community resilience - one small project, in one city park, offering sanctuary that matters. Part classroom, part public commons, herbal apothecary, regenerative orchard, cutting flower garden, native habitat restoration, and cultural event space - the Food Forest grows because it's founded on love, community, and sound values!

The Community Food Forest is nestled into Anishinaabe land in Leslie Park (a public city park), on the north side of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The project began with a blessing from local Indigenous community members, and holds a foundational intention of restoring relations between people and the earth as well as equitable access to care, education, greenspace, and community for all. While we do, in fact, demonstrate and teach about food forestry (permanent, largely self-regulating food systems), over the years, we have evolved into a multi-faceted demonstration garden and community space that welcomes anyone interested to learn many more aspects of gardening and habitat preservation. We have been in a responsive, relational process with our wider community and learning through listening what feels most welcoming and useful to the people. Alongside food forestry (fruit trees, berry bushes, vines, roots, and herbs planted in beneficial layers), we now also have a tea garden, a pollinator garden that is mostly native plants, a small raised-bed veg demonstration garden, a kitchen herb garden, a cutting flower garden, and lots of medicinal plants throughout the space.

Upcoming Opportunities to Connect at the Food Forest

Who is this for? - Our Community

The simple answer is - everyone. Every place that welcomes humans and the rest of creation back into relationship, every space that celebrates our human differences and focuses on restoring the earth, tips the scales in the right direction.

The Community Food Forest was once a lawn! Now it is a magical place that welcomes people of all races, ages, genders, cultures, and walks of life - we are a family-friendly space, and people come from far and wide to be with us. Everyone is welcome who honors a space of mutual regard. This is a mutual iad project and we build bridges, not walls. As we hold a firm commitment to improving equitable access to care, resources, education, greenspace, community, and sanctuary, one of the ways that we are distinct from a traditional community garden model is that we embody the ethic of “the Collective Cares the Collective”. How this plays out in daily life is that no one arrives to work only for themselves, or their families - every effort we make, large or small, is for everyone. People are welcome to roll up their sleeves and be part of big projects, or to sit among us on the little porch swing while others work. We know there are single mothers, community elders, people with various levels of physical ability, and anyone is welcome to harvest from the wealth that is available or rest their bones, in solitude or together, in one of the many available places. All of the programming we offer and all of the harvest we grow is free.

Who is this by? - Our Backbone Coalition

Our coalition is truly intersectional - a wide inter-generational range, many different ancestries and cultures, and a vast skillset between us. We are an entirely volunteer team, and most of us have been with the project since the beginning in 2020. Our common denominator is fierce commitment to this labor of love.

Coalition members, clockwise from the top left: Vishnu, he/him (founding member), is our assistant head gardener and resident engineer (oh, the skills that come in handy!). He hails from an agricultural family in Southern India and has a true passion for nurturing and tending the plants. Maro, they/them (founding member), is our graphic designer and website manager. They fastidiously tend to weed tree removal and lend a great deal to our cultural preservation programming. (They are pictured here with special guest, cultural emissary and renowned Master Taiko Drummer, Kaoly Asano.) ShuNahSii, she/her (founding member), as a nearly 40-year resident/member of the neighboring Arrowwood Hills Co-op community, has the longest relationship with the (Anishinaabe) land that the food forest is nestled within. She is our head gardener, primary designer, and herbal instructor. As well as four decades of organic gardening experience and a certification in permaculture design, she brings a background in anti-oppression work, community organizing, and mutual aid. (Pictured here with special guests Sapphire and Jodi), Nora, she/they (founding member), is our youngest coalition member. When the project began in 2020, she was a high school student facing the ramifications of COVID. They are a skilled community organizer, a dedicated apprentice in organic gardening and herbal medicine, and our gifted resident songstress. Kathleen, she/her (founding member), is our eldest Grandmother, and a fierce earth-protecting activist who relentlessly centers a commitment to restoring “Public Commons” as an act of cultural healing. The Commons is an essential aspect of what the Food Forest offers. Sara, she/her (founding member), born and raised in the Arrowwood Co-op, is an organic flower farmer whose knowledge and expertise are invaluable to our work. She teaches everything about growing, from germination to seed saving, and regularly contributes to our free educational events. Mateo, he/him, is our newest coalition member, having joined us in 2023. Mateo, he/him, is an organic gardening and herbal medicine student who has an immense passion for equitable distribution of care and community organizing. He is always bridging our project/community with other meaningful mutual aid and equity-oriented people, projects, and communities across Southeast Michigan.