Winslow Food Forest

Our mission is to create a future where every urban and suburban space contributes to community well-being. By turning lawns into food forests, fostering equitable land access, and promoting ecosystem literacy, we aim to empower communities to grow food, restore habitats, and build sustainable, inclusive, and abundant urban ecosystems where we can thrive in community. Portland Food Forest Initiative is a 501c3 non-profit committed to: The transformation of private and public lawns into food forests that feed all community members, especially those experiencing food insecurity Bringing awareness to, popularizing, and normalizing food forests as urban and suburban landscaping Creation of diverse regenerative urban ecosystems creating habitat for multi-species communities Facilitating access to land for marginalized community members for the purpose learning skills of regenerative urban agriculture and agroforestry Public advocacy for productive urban greenspaces Community engagement in areas of food security and sovereignty Public education in ecosystem literacy, regenerative agriculture, and skills needed to restore urban degraded lands to abundance We work with schools, churches, and apartment complexesin Portland to create public-facing long-term perennial food-bearing ecosystems that create food security, green space, opportunities for environmental education, development of skills in regenerative ag, and land tending for people of all ages. We work with homeownersin Portland who have large grass lawns and, with their funding, convert their lawns into food forests which are stewarded for 5-year-minimum periods by volunteer stewards who are not land owners themselves. The homeowners and the volunteer stewards split whatever harvest they can eat and the excess is donated to mutual aid food distribution groups. Stewards gain valuable hands-on training and skills in regenerative urban agriculture and agroforestry. We work with other non-profitsand citiesto design and establish food forests directly accessible to underserved communities, training community members in the care and stewardship of the food forests. We teach food forest and urban regenerative agriculture classeswith the intention of inspiring community members to tak