Handbook

In The Community Food Forest Handbook, Catherine Bukowski and John Munsell dive into the civic aspects of community food forests, drawing on Catherine’s observations, group meetings, and interviews at over 20 projects across the country for her dissertation research. She also drew on her experience obtaining funding, designing, installing, and managing a food forest at the YMCA community garden in Blacksburg, VA. The authors combine the stories and strategies gathered during Catherine’s research with their extensive background in program management and community outreach to outline steps for creating lasting public food forests that positively impact communities. Concepts of community development, collective leadership, and project management are touched on among other topics.

The Community Food Forest Handbook draws on systems thinking and social change theory to focus on how to work inclusively with people and build on their strengths when conceiving of, designing, and implementing a community food forest. To find practical ground, the authors use the framework of community capitals to highlight the ebb and flow of resources such as volunteer participation, funding, tools and plants, advice from experts, and support from local government agencies from a project’s inception to its completion.

The Community Food Forest Handbook provides readers with helpful ideas for building and sustaining momentum, working with diverse stakeholders, integrating assorted civic interests and visions within a project, creating safe and attractive sites, navigating community policies, and more. Its concepts and examples showcase the complexities of community food forests, highlighting the human resilience of those who learn and experience what is possible when they collaborate on a shared vision for their community.