Who we are:
ReTreeUS
is a nonprofit project (501c3 under the United Charitable Programs)
dedicated to promoting an environmentally sustainable, socially just
food system. We plant orchards with local schools and provide
educational programs that empower young people and their families to
grow their own home gardens. We connect households of all income levels
with the resources they need to grow and buy local, organic produce,
making nutrition accessible to those for whom good food is otherwise out
of reach.
With
your help ReTreeUS will be able to plant more orchards in schools,
facilitate individuals to plant more backyard gardens and make healthy,
sustainable food available to everyone. Feel the good energy of
becoming involved with our program by donating, becoming a member or just learning about what we do. Thanks for visiting our website and being a part of positive growth.
Moriah Salter and Richard Hodges are the co-founders of ReTreeUS. Together with students and faculty at participating schools, as well as many friends and volunteers, Moriah and Richard planted 1,000 trees and reached 1,000 students through their programs in the first year.
Take a look at ReTreeUS in the news:
Now entering the second season of orchard installations, the ReTreeUS co-founders will plant four more school orchards and expand their farm, which provides nutritious, chemical-free produce to families of all income levels through their sliding scale pricing.
Please contact us to learn more about our program and how we can work together to nourish people and the planet.
Co-founder Richard Hodges earned a degree at the University of Vermont, where he helped lead the gardening club and lived in a communal space of inspired young people. He has since gained more gardening and permaculture experience in New England, California, and the tropics of Costa Rica, where he adventured, surfed, volunteered, and learned from native subsistence farmers. Richard has taught, led backpacking trips and volunteered with youth since high school and uses his humor and passion for the planet to inspire both children and adults.
At Exploring New Horizons Outdoor School (ENH) in California, Richard was a naturalist for two years, teaching kids about the ecology of the local redwoods and tidepools before becoming the ENH Garden Manager. He tended the organic garden for two years, expanding its borders by about two-thirds, helping plants thrive, and inspiring students. Every year about 4,000 students visit this garden, where Richard encouraged them to grow and eat their own healthy produce at home. He urged them in his own unique and memorable way to eat more kale, and he empowered them to be "Super Heroes for the Planet."
Richard and Moriah spent time learning about grafting, pruning, and other permacultural skills together in California through workshops at the University of California at Santa Cruz Farm and Garden Program.
Richard grew up in Maine and has returned to bring the lessons of sustainability in gardening and orcharding to the youth of his home state. When Richard is not working on the ReTreeUS program, he surfs, explores with his dog, sells flowers, gives ski lessons, and coaches soccer for the Durham Community School, a 2012-2013 ReTreeUS Orchard Recipient. Both co-founders write and play music together, and they enjoy using music when bringing ReTreeUS programs to schools.
Co-founder Moriah Salter has a degree in Environmental Science with a focus on Sociology and Anthropology from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In college, she spearheaded the first environmental education program and served as Education Coordinator for the Tennessee River Gorge Trust. She has been involved in environmental education ever since. Moriah revitalized the organic garden at McDowell Environmental Center in Alabama and advocated passionately for equal access to healthy food and drinking water in the southeast, as well as in Colorado and New Mexico, her homestate.
She mentored urban youth for several years during college, taught free art classes for under-served communities, and was a naturalist teaching thousands of students each year at outdoor schools in both Alabama and California. While in CA at Exploring New Horizons Outdoor School, Moriah and Richard took grafting and pruning courses at the University of California Santa Cruz, and they continue to edify themselves in the field of orcharding through workshops and networking with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association.
Moriah is inspired by poetry, yoga, mountains, good food, the ocean, trees, birds, people, her dog, and the places she explores. Moriah enjoys songwriting and incorporates the beauty she encounters in the music she writes. She often spends time hiking, skiing, surfing, canoeing, and is currently enjoying adventures on the coast of Maine while she and Richard establish ReTreeUS there.
Find out more about both co-founders and their progress by reading the ReTreeUS blog.
ReTreeUS, a member of the United Charitable Programs, is constantly making strides toward sustainability and stewardship. Click on the links below to access our financial and legal information:
Privacy Policy
UCP Nondiscrimination Policy
UCP State Fundraising & Solicitation Disclosure
