Philadelphia Orchard Project

What Philadelphia Orchard Project does

Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Philadelphia that partners with community-based organizations, schools, and urban farms to plan, design, and plant orchards in low-wealth neighborhoods with limited access to fresh fruit. POP provides free orchard design assistance, plant materials, and training in orchard care, while community partners own, maintain, and harvest the orchards. As of 2025, the organization supports 72 orchards across 71 community partners and has planted 1,731 trees, 4,446 shrubs and vines, and 29,513 perennials since inception, engaging 827 volunteers in the process.

POP's core programmatic surface is structured around several branded offerings: POPCORE, a four-part Community Orchard Resilience Education curriculum covering pruning, pest and disease management, harvest, and design; POPHarvestEd, a harvest-education workshop series; the POP Learning Orchard (PLOW), a living-classroom demonstration site at the Woodlands; the Lead Orchard Volunteer (LOV) program that provides trained volunteer capacity to partner sites; and POPCORE Jr, a youth-focused extension. The organization publishes an extensive, annually updated educational content library including a Pest and Disease Guide for Stone Fruit, species-specific monthly management plans, a Pruning Guide, Harvest Guide, Orchard Design Guide, and bilingual (English/Spanish) Rainbow Nutrition and Recipe cards developed with Penn State Nutrition Links. Educational video content totals more than 15 episodes across pruning and pest management topics. POP also partners with the University of Pennsylvania to measure carbon sequestration and food-system carbon offsets using iTree methodology, generating approximately 30 tons of stored carbon across six surveyed orchards.

POP's business model is grant- and donation-funded, with services provided at no cost to community partners. Revenue streams are individual donations and grants from organizations such as the Philadelphia Chapter of the Garden Club of America, supplemented by academic research partnerships. The go-to-market motion is community-led, relying on direct partnerships, volunteer engagement, and events (plantings, work days, workshops, harvest festivals) rather than paid marketing. In 2025, partner orchards produced 12,044 lbs of harvest, of which 77% was distributed for free to community members, reaching 5,336 people through direct tasting and 9,206 through orchard gathering spaces.

Name

Philadelphia Orchard Project

Legal name

Philadelphia Orchard Project

Website

https://phillyorchards.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Philadelphia Orchard Project is a Philadelphia-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit that partners with community organizations to design, plant, and steward orchards in low-wealth neighborhoods, providing free design, plant materials, training, and educational programming across 71 partner sites.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Agriculture Services

NAICS

Soil Preparation, Planting, and Cultivating (115112), Other Noncitrus Fruit Farming (111339)

SIC

Agricultural Services (700)

akta.pro primary industry

Orchard Management & Field Operations (Pruning/Training, Thinning, Irrigation/Fertigation) (AFAGACAL)

akta.pro secondary industries

Orchard Establishment & Replanting (New Plantings, Rootstock Selection, Trellising Systems) (AFAGACAK), Native, Pollinator & Drought-Tolerant Garden Installations (HSAIAFAL)

Keywords

• Community orchard planting
• Urban agriculture education
• Orchard stewardship training
• Food access initiatives
• Perennial agriculture programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Philadelphia

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Donations: The organization accepts donations from individuals and organizations to support orchard planting and maintenance programs
2. Grant Funding: POP receives grant funding from organizations such as the Philadelphia Chapter of the Garden Club of America to support orchard partnerships and plantings

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Philadelphia Orchard Project plans, plants, and supports community orchards of edible perennials in vacant lots, community gardens, schoolyards, and other urban spaces in low-wealth Philadelphia neighborhoods. The organization provides free orchard design assistance, plant materials, and training in orchard care to community partner organizations, which then own, maintain, and harvest the orchards for local food production.

Product overview

Philadelphia Orchard Project (POP) is a non-profit service organization that operates as a unified portfolio of orchard planting and education programs rather than a software product. The core offerings include: (1) Orchard Planting services where POP partners with community organizations to design, plant, and establish orchards in urban spaces, providing design assistance, plant materials, and training; (2) POPCORE educational series offering a 4-part curriculum covering pruning, pest management, harvest, and design; (3) POPHarvestEd harvest education program; (4) POP Learning Orchard (PLOW) as a demonstration site; (5) Lead Orchard Volunteer (LOV) Program for volunteer capacity building; and (6) an extensive library of educational resources including the annual Pest and Disease Guide, Pruning Guide, Harvest Guide, Orchard Design Guide, bilingual nutrition cards, and pest-specific monthly action plans. POP also conducts annual partner surveys and partners with academic researchers for carbon impact studies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• POPCORE: Community Orchard Resilience Education - a 4-part workshop series covering Pruning and Eco-Orchard Care, Pest and Disease Management, Harvest and Use, and Design and Implementation.
• POPHarvestEd
• POP Learning Orchard (PLOW)
• Lead Orchard Volunteers (LOVs)
• POPCORE Jr

Products and services

• Orchard Planting Core service in which POP partners with community-based organizations to plan and plant orchards in vacant lots, community gardens, schoolyards, and other urban spaces in low-wealth Philadelphia neighborhoods. POP provides orchard design assistance, plant materials, and training in orchard care at no cost, and the partner organization owns, maintains, and harvests the orchard.
• Orchard Education (POPCORE) POPCORE (Community Orchard Resilience Education) is a four-part educational series covering Pruning and Eco-Orchard Care, Pest and Disease Management, Harvest and Use, and Design and Implementation, delivered through hands-on workshops and training for community partners and Lead Orchard Volunteers.
• POPHarvestEd

Quantifiable outcome

• 77% of harvest distributed for free to community members
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• TrueLove Seeds FarmcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2025POP partnered with TrueLove Seeds Farm at Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in 2025-2026. TrueLove submitted partnership application in June 2025; orchard was designed and planted in April 2026 with 17 fruit trees and 18 berries/vines. POP has been a seedsaving partner with TrueLove since 2020. TrueLove grows over 125 different plant varieties including ~100 species. The partnership includes culturally important plantings including Italian fig varieties, Asian pears and persimmons, Palestinian grape varieties, and Indigenous Pennsylvania crops (pawpaws, blueberries, elderberries).
• Schuylkill Center for Environmental EducationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025SCEE welcomed TrueLove Seeds Farm in 2025, which occupies 2 acres of previously fallow land. Founded in 1965, SCEE is one of the first urban environmental education centers in the country with 365 acres in northwest Philadelphia. SCEE is a regional and national leader in urban environmental education with innovative programs, environmental art program, wildlife clinic, Nature Preschool, and land stewardship commitment.
• University of PennsylvaniacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025POP partnered with researchers from Penn to measure carbon sequestration and carbon offset of local food production from POP orchards. The collaboration surveyed 165 trees across 6 orchards using iTree software (US Forest Service) and built statistical models comparing carbon impacts of local vs commercially imported fruits (cherries, figs, peaches, plums). A formal report from Penn's Kleinman Center will be published.
• Big Picture AllianceminorGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2023In 2023, POP partnered with Big Picture Alliance to create a 3-episode video series on Pest and Disease Management. Big Picture Alliance collected footage of POP orchard sites across the city and created custom graphic motion to illustrate lifecycle stages of orchard pests and diseases.
• Penn State Nutrition LinksminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPOP collaborated with Penn State Nutrition Links nutritionist and educator Suzanne Weltman to develop bilingual Rainbow Nutrition & Recipe cards for community partners, teachers, and culinary educators.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• GrowNYC: Long-standing New York City nonprofit operating farmers markets, school gardens, and open space greening programs including tree stewardship. Larger, broader urban agriculture/environmental nonprofit with overlapping programming to POP's community orchard education and distribution work.

Direct peers

• The Food Project: Boston-area nonprofit that builds sustainable, local food systems through youth agriculture and urban farming programs with a strong education and food-access mission. Comparable community-engagement and educational programming structure to POP.
• Keep Growing Detroit: Detroit-based urban agriculture network supporting community gardens, urban farms, and orchards with a focus on food sovereignty in low-wealth neighborhoods. Strong model overlap with POP's community-partner approach to urban food production.
• Portland Fruit Tree Project: Portland-based nonprofit harvesting fruit from urban trees and orcharding volunteer engagement events for community sharing. Closely mirrors POP's model of mobilizing volunteers around urban fruit trees for food access outcomes.
• Urban Harvest: Houston-based nonprofit focused on community gardens, urban orchards, and food access programming in low-income neighborhoods. Similar mission and community-based food production model to POP, operating in a different climate/geography.
• City Fruit: Seattle-based nonprofit that plants and cares for urban fruit trees, organizes harvest events, and trains volunteers in fruit tree stewardship. Directly comparable to POP's orchard design, planting, training, and volunteer engagement model in another US metro.
• Forested (formerly Baltimore Orchard Project): Sister city-based urban orchard planting nonprofit serving Baltimore communities. Operates the same model — community partner planting, volunteer stewardship, food access focus — in a different city, making it the closest organizational analog to Philadelphia Orchard Project.

Regional players

• TreePeople: Los Angeles-based nonprofit focused on urban forestry, tree planting, and environmental education in a major US city. Adjacent to POP's urban orchard and volunteer stewardship model with a stronger focus on shade/canopy trees and broader environmental education rather than food production.
• Just Food: New York-based food justice nonprofit connecting rural producers to NYC communities and supporting community-supported agriculture, food access, and urban agriculture. Mission-relevant comparator with food access and community partnership focus, though direct farm/manus versus POP's orchard focus.

Emerging players

• Sprout City Farms: Denver-metro nonprofit operating urban farms, including a mountain orchard and food forest initiatives, focused on food access and education. Adjacent comparator with overlapping orchard and community stewardship programming in a different region.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/philadelphia-orchard-project

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Philadelphia Orchard Project