ABOUT

ABOUT

We have planted over 2,000 fruit trees across Baltimore City.

SINCE 2012

We are driven by our mission, rooted in our story, and stewarded by our team.

OUR MISSION

The Baltimore Orchard Project collaborates with communities to strengthen Baltimore's neighborhoods through fruiting trees and plants.

Our Story

In 2016, the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future teamed up with BOP to create a story map. We have planted, harvested and stewarded more orchards and become an independent nonprofit since then, but Stories from the Orchard still captures the spirit of the Baltimore Orchard Project.

Meet Our Amazing Team

We are currently a volunteer organization lead by a team with a vision. Our leadership team has ample experience in farming, public service, research and community organizing.

Forest Fleisher

CO PRESIDENT

  • Forest works as an operations analyst at T. Rowe Price. While she both works and lives in Baltimore City, she grew up in a small town, where her family owns a farm. Growing up in this environment helped her to recognize the benefits of sustainable farming and the positive impacts it can have on a community. Forest values the opportunities that BOP has to offer Baltimore City for both its citizens and its environment.

Colin McDaniels

  • Colin practices litigation as an attorney in Towson. He is a fourth generation Baltimorean and many of his earliest memories are of his grandparents growing and caring for plants in their yard. Colin was drawn to BOP by the opportunity to work outside and make tangible improvements to Baltimore communities by planting. He values the organization’s capacity for enriching people’s connection to nature and providing them with the tools to become better stewards of their environment.

CO PRESIDENT

Merritt Pridgeon

VP OF VOLUNTEERS

  • Merritt began volunteering with BOP because the organization combines many of her interests: the outdoors; trees; food; community organizing; and education. She has learned a lot about planting and caring for fruit trees and shrubs, and harvesting wild mulberries and serviceberries that grow in public spaces. What Merritt enjoys most about BOP is meeting and talking to new people who come together in the orchards of Baltimore City.

Dawna Cobb

SECRETARY

  • Dawna has been involved with BOP since 2013 after meeting BOP founder, Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, when she came to speak to her MICA class in a course on Baltimore Urban Farming. She is a past board chair and current secretary. Dawna has stayed involved all these years because bringing fresh fruit and fruit trees to the urban environment bestows benefits not only on the community and its members, but on the overall environment.

Brennan Tolstoi

TREASURER

  • The only thing Brennan likes more than trees are trees that produce food. He also likes Baltimore, and wants to see the city succeed. He believes that it is 100% possible to strategically sow food producing plants such that anyone in our city can access them. “It’s such a simple concept, but in my mind, the idea that a future hungry resident (though I hope those numbers dwindle as rapidly as possible) can walk up to one of our trees for sustenance is why I keep volunteering.”