STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
This time of year, some city people drive out to the country to pick apples. An organization called The Giving Grove is offering fruit grown right in cities. Here's Frank Morris of our member station KCUR.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: I've noticed that they're way juicier when they come fresh off.
FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: Just off the patched asphalt parking lot of a 100-year-old school building, Kansas City Academy students are plucking jujubes - green-and-brown fruits no bigger than a golf ball.
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ALEX LEDFORD: They have, like, a hint of sweetness. They're my favorite, like, yoink-it-and-eat-it snack.
MORRIS: Alex Ledford, a ninth-grader, is filling a basket alongside senior Nova Henry.
NOVA HENRY: I feel like a fairy-tale princess every lunch because I get to go out and just feast on little treats.
ALEX: We can literally eat them straight off the tree whenever we want during lunch. That's awesome.
MORRIS: And the science teacher here, Janet Porter, says the students got help planting this tiny fig, apple, pear and jujube orchard.
JANET PORTER: The Giving Grove is a wonderful partner for us. They do training. They do workshops. If I ever have any questions, they're just a phone call away, and they'll be here.
MORRIS: The Kansas City nonprofit has branched out across the country. Marketing director Sarah Sikich says it's helped plant 14,000 fruit and nut trees in 17 cities, from Seattle to Atlanta.
SARAH SIKICH: People have an easy time falling in love with what we're doing. You know, planting fruit trees is something everyone can agree with.
MORRIS: Giving Grove founder Kevin Birzir says the group helps local community garden organizations make the leap to planting and tending fruit trees, sharing know-how and providing seed money for equipment and staffing. Corporate donations supply most of The Giving Grove's funding. Volunteers do almost all of the labor. It's a winning formula. Almost 850 Giving Grove orchards are already producing more than 2 1/2 million pounds of fruit and nuts a year. And Birzir says the organization's fielding invitations from all over.
KEVIN BIRZIR: Some environments are more challenging, yes. Growing them in Brooklyn may be a lot different than growing them in Utah, no doubt. But the same concepts apply.
MORRIS: That is, turning unused land into little neighborhood parks and growing free organic food for the picking. Birzir says that could work just about anywhere.
For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris in Kansas City.
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