TREEMOBILE
Treemobile is a non-profit organization and a project of Transition Guelph and Transition Toronto that started as a Transition Guelph project in 2011. By the end of 2020, we planted hundreds of plants, about 10% of which were trees!
TreeMobile supplies climate-appropriate fruit trees and plants at low cost. It is is about 'people planting resilience'. It is a truly grassroots project, volunteer powered and sponsored by those who buy the plants.
It is designed to:
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Empower people to achieve food security by planting and growing their own food
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Make seasonal organics locally accessible
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Be locally supported
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Improve the urban canopy
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Address local sustainability and global climate issues.
Important impacts of TreeMobile:
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Shows children that good food comes from plants, not factories
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Helping community/church/school gardens by donating plants to their projects
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Building community around the project and the sharing of local, organic food
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Healthy, ecological use of the urban landscape
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Creation of productive, beautiful and fruitful places
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A reminder to people of the rhythm of the seasons
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Encourages people to eat what is local and seasonal
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Carbon storage through tree growth
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Emissions reduction through shading & reduced food miles
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Develops communities that are socially and physically healthy and resilient
How it works:
The Treemobile provides fruit and nut trees at very low cost to anyone in the Guelph and Greater Toronto area each spring (May and June). To get a tree, please place an order between January and May for pickup or delivery. When the spring rolls around, we will be in contact to tell you either when and where to pick up your tree, or when we will be delivering it to you. You even have the option of having it planted for you at no cost! We just ask that you do your best to nurture the tree, harvest its fruit, and send some photos once in a while! If you have too much fruit being produced, please consider connecting with the Appleseed Collective or Chalmers Community Centre to pick the fruit so it can be eaten by people in need.
To learn more or to order your trees, please visit transitiontreemobile.org.
The original Treemobile team in Guelph after a tree-planting lessons from Francis Papillion (red t-shirt, back centre) at the Guelph Centre for Urban Agriculture, University of Guelph, Spring, 2013. Brown t-shirt in front of Francis is Virginie Gysel, original project organizer and current coordinator.
