Food Forest
Murray River Food Forest
The Shared Table Initiative
Murray River, Prince Edward Island, Canada
The Murray River Food Forest is the first growing site of The Shared Table Initiative, a community food, biodiversity, and learning initiative taking root in Kings County, Prince Edward Island.
Beginning in 2027, the site will be developed over several years using agroforestry, regenerative growing practices, and permaculture principles to create a diverse landscape of fruit and nut trees, berries, perennial and annual foods, native plants, pollinator habitat, and accessible growing spaces.
More than a place to grow food, the Murray River Food Forest will be a place to grow knowledge, biodiversity, and community. Through hands-on learning, workshops, volunteer opportunities, children's programming, and shared food experiences, the project will explore how communities can grow food while caring for the ecosystems that make food production possible.
The Shared Table is being developed as a replicable model, with educational resources and lessons from the project made openly available to help other communities create and adapt similar initiatives.
Coming in 2027. Stay tuned for opportunities to donate, volunteer, learn, and help us grow.
Project Benefits
Growing More Than Food
The Murray River Food Forest is designed to demonstrate what can happen when food production, biodiversity, and community are treated as parts of the same living system.
As the landscape develops, the project aims to:
-
Grow locally adapted food through a diverse mix of fruits, berries, nuts, vegetables, herbs, and perennial crops.
-
Support biodiversity by incorporating native plants and creating food, shelter, and habitat for pollinators, birds, insects, and other wildlife.
-
Build healthier soil through composting, organic practices, perennial plantings, and regenerative growing methods.
-
Increase climate resilience by creating a diverse growing system better able to respond to changing weather and environmental conditions.
-
Conserve water through thoughtful landscape design, rainwater collection, improved soil health, and perennial vegetation.
-
Create accessible opportunities to grow and learn, including raised growing spaces and hands-on community education.
-
Reconnect people with their food by creating opportunities to learn where food comes from, how it grows, and how healthy ecosystems support our food systems.
-
Share knowledge beyond Murray River by documenting what we learn and developing open-source resources that other communities can adapt and replicate.
At its heart, the Murray River Food Forest is an experiment in reciprocity:
Can we create a place that feeds people while also feeding the soil, supporting wildlife, strengthening biodiversity, and bringing a community together?
We believe we can.