Grapevine-based Kubota Tractor Corporation recently announced announced the five $100,000 recipients of its third annual Kubota Hometown Proud grant program—and one is a local nonprofit working to advance the planting of community orchards across North Texas.
Grow North Texas, a nonprofit working to create a sustainable and secure regional food system, has become the Dallas-area affiliate for The Giving Grove, a nationwide initiative promoting community orchards in food-insecure neighborhoods.
Photo: Grow North Texas
The nonprofit’s North Texas Giving Grove program will support neighborhood volunteers in planting and caring for fruit trees, nut trees, blackberries, herbs, and pollinators “that improve the urban environment, increase tree canopy for underserved communities, and provide a sustainable source of free, organically- grown food for neighborhoods facing high rates of food insecurity.”
Kubota made the local community orchard program one of five recipients of its Hometown Proud grant program. The four others getting $100K each include the Black Farms, Food and Families Project in Lebanon, Tennessee; the Hunger Task Force in West Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Lucasville Community Park in Lucasville, Ohio; andThe Children’s Village in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Cody Schaffer of Irving’s Schaffer Kubota said his dealership “is honored to represent this well-deserved program as Kubota works to give back to projects like these in hometowns across America.”
“Communities like ours are the heart and soul of our country and we are proud to deliver on-the-ground support to our local non-profit partners,” Schaffer added in a statement. “We’ve served the equipment needs of this area for years, and we’re excited and honored to partner with The Giving Grove to bring this year’s Kubota Hometown Proud Grant to Dallas.”
The Giving Grove could get $100K more with your help—and you might win a mower or tractor
[Photo: Kubota Tractor Corporation]
Now, each of the five winners is being put up for a public vote. The hometown project with the most votes will win an additional $100,000 grant as the Kubota Community Choice Award winner. As an added incentive, every submitted vote will be entered into a separate sweepstakes for the chance to win a Kubota zero-turn mower or BX sub-compact tractor, Kubota said.
“We need a boost to be competitive—we are currently lagging,” Grow North Texas added in a statement. “We need Dallas to get behind this great organization.”
Voting is open through August 14 at KubotaHometownProud.com.
Aiming to serve ‘800K North Texans’ facing food insecurity
The Giving Grove community orchard program at Grow North Texas aims to help volunteers install and maintain fruit trees and berry bushes to help provide a free source of fresh food for urban neighborhoods.
About 800,000 North Texans experience food insecurity in the wake of the pandemic and increased living expenses, Grow North Texas says, adding that “and at the same time Dallas has one of the highest rates of tree equity discrepancy in the country and needs tree canopy to help mitigate rising urban temperatures.”
The Kubota Hometown Proud Grant, with the support of Schaffer Kubota, will allow Grow North Texas to purchase a truck and landscape trailer to transport trees, planting supplies, mulch, and compost to the 24 existing orchard sites around the region, in addition to launching eight new community orchards over the next two years. With the 2023 Community Choice grant, if awarded, Grow North Texas plans to purchase additional equipment and fund 14 more orchard sites over five years.
The community orchard project’s local partners
The Grow North Texas Giving Grove project is made possible through a partnership with Communities Foundation of Texas’ W.W Caruth Jr. Fund as part of the Food Equity Innovation Challenge.
Grow North Texas says its efforts already include a “cultivating with community” project with Dallas ISD’s Nathaniel Hawthorne Elementary School and a community orchard at the West Dallas Stem School in partnership with Brother Bill.
The local Giving Grove program will also serve as “a community space for members of all ages to bond as they learn about local food production and healthy eating habits,” the organization said.
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