THE COMMUNITY FOOD FOREST AT LESLIE PARK

One small project in one public city park
offering sanctuary that matters.

The Community Food Forest is a thriving, beautiful mutual aid project on the Northside of Ann Arbor that interweaves ecological restoration and community resilience.

What is a Food Forest? - Our Project

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!

[Shu edit?] A food forest is a permanent food system that mimics a naturally occurring forest. It is layered with plants of differing heights and characteristics that offer many foods, medicines, and benefits to the land. The layers of plants here are: fruit and/or nut trees, berry bushes and shrubs, perennial herbs and flowers, root plants, ground covers, and climbing vines with edible fruits. The plants work together as a community to ensure a healthy ecosystem. While it takes effort and care to get a young food forest going, once it establishes, this ecosystem largely takes care of itself; it uses much less time, energy, and resources (water, fertilizer, human effort, etc.) as it continues to provide food, medicine, and habitat for generations to come.

Who is this for? - Our Community

[short sentence] 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.

[saying something about the cultural side of the mission, ways and degrees people get involved in the project (with photos) - also include the part of our philosophy that everybody works for everybody]